Question

In my project. I want to populate the drop down list on a jsp from a database.

<select id="names" name="names"> <c:forEach items="${names}" var="names">
        <option><c:out value="${names}"/></option>
    </c:forEach>
</select>

The ${names} is a list of names from the database. I want to select an option dynamically in the drop down list. Suppose there are three names in the database Rohan, Dean, Justin. If Dean is logged, i want select the option Dean as selected.

I try a code like this but this does not work.

<option value="${names}" ${names == names ? 'selected' : ''}>${names}</option>

Answer 1

Try like this assuming that loggedInUser variable holds the String value of the currently logged in user.

<select id="names" name="names">
<c:forEach items="${names}" var="names">

    <c:when test="${loggedInUser eq names}">    
        <option value ="<c:out value="${names}"/>" selected="selected">${names}</option>
    </c:when>
    <c:otherwise>
        <option><c:out value="${names}"/></option> 
    </c:otherwise>  
</c:forEach>