Question

I’m trying to update the user_pref column within my html form.

I have a drop down which looks like this (it works fine):

User pref: <select name="user_pref" size="1" id="user_pref">
<option value="BLUE">Blue</option>
<option value="RED">Red</option>
<option value="YELLOW">Yellow</option>
<?php echo htmlentities($user_pref, ENT_COMPAT, 'utf-8'); ?></select>

I want to be able to set the default value to the value the user already has in the user_prefcolumn in MySQL. So, for example ,if user A has "Yellow" in their user_pref then I want to display "Yellow" when I’m updating that user’s preference.

Can anyone please help me with this?

Answer 1

This is the basic idea… you’ll have to adapt it to fit your needs…

<?php

    // assuming $user_pref is their preference...

    /*
     * create array of possible options...
     * I usually store my options in my database because
     * my applications tend to be dynamic
     * but you can just create a quick array to do the same job
     */
    $arrOptions = array(
        'val1' => 'option1',
        'val2' => 'option2',
        'val3' => 'option3'
    );

    $selected = '';

    print '<select id="user_pref_id">';

    foreach ($arrOptions as $key => $val) {
        // test for $key or $val depending on which makes sense for your application
        $selected = ($key == $user_pref) ? ' selected="selected"' : '';

        printf('<option value="%s"%s>%s</option>', $key, $selected, $val);
    }

    print '</select>';
?>