Question

When the user does not select an option from the drop down menu, it does not display the error message “Please Select a course”. Can anybody see why it is not displaying the message and see if I am doing the php validation right in order to be able to check if a drop down option has been selected or not?

Below is the code:

 $sql = "SELECT CourseId, CourseNo, CourseName FROM Course ORDER BY CourseNo"; 

 $sqlstmt=$mysqli->prepare($sql);

 $sqlstmt->execute(); 

 $sqlstmt->bind_result($dbCourseId, $dbCourseNo, $dbCourseName);

 $courses = array(); // easier if you don't use generic names for data 

 $courseHTML = "";  
 $courseHTML .= '<select name="courses" id="coursesDrop">'.PHP_EOL; 
 $courseHTML .= '<option value="">Please Select</option>'.PHP_EOL;  

 while($sqlstmt->fetch()) 
 { 
     $courseno = $dbCourseNo;
     $course = $dbCourseId;
     $coursename = $dbCourseName; 
     $courseHTML .= "<option value='".$course."'>" . $courseno . " - " . $coursename . "</option>".PHP_EOL;  
  } 

  $courseHTML .= '</select>'; 

  $submittedCourseId = (isset($_POST['courses'])) ? $_POST['courses'] : '';
  $errormsg = (isset($errormsg)) ? $errormsg : '';

        ?>
    <h1>CREATING A NEW ASSESSMENT</h1>

        <form action="<?php echo htmlentities($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']); ?>" method="post">
        <table>
        <tr>
        <th>Course: <?php echo $courseHTML; ?><input id="courseSubmit" type="submit" value="Submit" name="submit" /></th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
        <td id="errormsg"><?php echo $errormsg; ?></td>
        </tr>
        </table>
        </form>

        <?php

if (isset($_POST['submit'])) {


$submittedCourseId = $_POST['courses'];

if($submittedCourseId){

?>

//need to do functions here

<?php
 }
 else{
$errormsg = "Please Select a Course";
}
?>

Answer 1

$errormsg is being filled AFTER the HTML is being output. Therefore, $errormsg will always be blank at the time it is output.