Question

I have a form that validates the information submitted within a form, method is POST and is submitted to another file “Check.php”, I am using sessions to remember what the POST data is, when ever there is a problem with the form I redirect it back to the form input page.

How do you get the post data to remember which OPTION was selected in the SELECT input?

CODE:

<select name="referred">
    <option value="facebook">facebook</option>
    <option value="youtube">youtube</option>
    <option value="reddit">reddit</option>
    <option value="google">google</option>
</select>

I’ve tried to do this but does not work:

<select name="referred">
    <option value="facebook"   
    <?php
        if (isset($_POST['referred']) && $_POST['referred'] == "Facebook") {
            print "selected=\'selected\'";
        } 
    ?>?> >facebook</option>

I’ve tried to do this but still, does not work 🙁

<select name="referred">
    <option value="facebook"
    <?php
        if (isset($_POST['referred'])) {
            if ($_POST['referred'] == "youtube") { 
                echo "selected=\'selected\'";
            } else {
                echo "";
            }
        }
    ?> >facebook

Please help!

EDIT:

I APOLOGISE, I’m not using the $_POST here to check if it’s set, I should be using the $_SESSION, see below:

            <select name="referred">
                <option name="google"<?php if(isset($_SESSION['referred'])){ if($_SESSION['referred'] == "google"){ echo "selected='selected'";}else{ echo "";}}?>>google</option>
                <option name="youtube"<?php if(isset($_SESSION['referred'])){ if($_SESSION['referred'] == "youtube"){ echo "selected='selected'";}else{ echo "";}}?>>youtube</option>
                <option name="reddit" <?php if(isset($_SESSION['referred'])){ if($_SESSION['referred'] == "reddit"){ echo "selected='selected'";}else{ echo "";}}?>>reddit</option>
                <option name="facebook" <?php if(isset($_SESSION['referred'])){ if($_SESSION['referred'] == "facebook"){ echo "selected='selected'";}else{ echo "";}}?>>facebook</option>
            </select>

Answer 1

You don’t need to escape single quotes in a string wrapped in double quotes.

echo "selected=\'selected\'" // incorrect

Like that your html markup would end up like <option value="facebook" selected=\'selected'\> Which is bad html.

This should work.

EDIT

<select name="referred">
    <?php
        if (!empty($_SESSION['referred']) && 'option1' == $_SESSION['referred']) {
            $selected = 'selected="selected"';
        } else {
            $selected = null;
        }
    ?>
    <option value="option1" <?= $selected; ?>>option1</option>
    ....
</select>

If you have a known set of options then make an array and loop through them:

<?php
    $options = array(
        'option1' => 'Option 1',
        'option2' => 'Option 2',
        'option3' => 'Option 3' // ...
    );
    $referredIsset = isset($_SESSION['referred']);
?>

<select name="referred">
    <?php foreach ($options as $value => $name): ?>
        <?php
            $sel = ($referredIsset && $_SESSION['referred'] == $value)
                ? 'selected="selected"'
                : null;
        ?>
        <option value="<?= $value; ?>" <?= $sel; ?>>
            <?= $name; ?>
        </option>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
</select>