Question

I have a drop down list which is dynamically populated from a MySQL database :

<select name= "studentnames" >
<option value="0">Select a Student</option>

$RSStudentName = mysql_query( "SELECT StudentName, StudentID FROM Students " );

while($StudentNameList = mysql_fetch_object($RStudentName))
    {
    <option value = "<?php echo $StudentNameList->StudentID ;?> " >

    <?php 
        echo $StudentNameList->StudentName ;
     ?>
    </option>       
<?php 
    }
?>
</select>

---

The drop down gets filled these items as below :

Student1

Student2

Student3

Student4

---

Student Table is as :

SID | SNAME

S001 | Student1

S002 | Student2

S003 | Student3

Now when the users selects a student name from the drop down list, i want to get the value of that option , and insert it into a table. How to do this?

That is, if user selects Student3 in the drop down list, then i want to get S003 in some variable and insert it in a table? Please help with how to get the value attribute in a variable.

Could this be done?

$sid = $_POST('studentnames').value;

Answer 1

If it’s a simpel form post: the selected value will be in:

$_POST['studentnames']

In your code, use the ID as VALUE, and the name just as text

<option value="[id field]">[studentname]</option>

then

$_POST['studentnames']

will contain the is, might be better then naming it simply ‘student’…