Select Menu issue

[Fazi]

hai friends,

my select Menu as follows

<select name="cmbgender" id="cmbgender" >
                <option>Male</option>
                <option>Female</option>
            </select>

When the user attempt to edit a record, i load the data relavent to the record from the db in to a form where above control is a part of it.

Now i need to select Male if the value in the db is Male, else Female.

How do i do that ?

Assume, $gender is the variable which holds the Male / Female data retrived.

[k1ll3rdr4g0n]

This query should work for most (some) DB servers.

"SELECT * FROM people WHERE gender = '" . $gender .  "'"

[Fazi]

brother k1II3dr3rd4gorOn

Thanks. but my question is how to select an existing item in the list

[k1ll3rdr4g0n]

brother k1II3dr3rd4gorOn

Thanks. but my question is how to select an existing item in the list

Prehaps something like:

if ($gender == "male") {
$menu = '<select name="cmbgender" id="cmbgender" >
                <option value="male">Male</option>
                <option value="female">Female</option>
            </select>';
} else {
$menu = '<select name="cmbgender" id="cmbgender" >
                <option value="female">Female</option>
                <option value="male">Male</option>
            </select>';
}

[Fazi]

Hai K1,

i just got a reply from an out side forum.

<option <?php if ($gender=="Male") { ?> selected="selected" <?php }?> >Male</option>

I thing your method in #4 will have a large over head when it come to a big list

[dclamp]

Yeah, the way he did it would be ok for 2 items, but for multiple it would be best to go through a loop.

[Fazi]

Guys, Do you undestind this

<option <?php if ($gender=="Male") { ?> selected="selected" <?php }?> >Male</option>

I have some confusion and explanation would be much appriciated.

[dclamp]

well it is pretty straight forward...

the php is saying:
if the gender is male, then echo "selected='selected'"

so you would need this:

<select>
     //so if the person is male, this one will be selected
     <option value='male' <?PHP if($gener=="male") { ?> selected='selected <?PHP } ?>>
     // if it is a female, this will be seleced
     <option value='female' <?PHP if($gener=="female") { ?> selected='selected <?PHP } ?>>
</select>

[Fazi]

still i have confusing on the open and close tags,
why this is imediatly colose?

<?PHP if($gener=="male") { ?>

so what will happen to the following html?

[dclamp]

well that is the correct way to show html with php.

another (incorrect) way to show it would be:

<?PHP if ($gener=="male") { echo "selected='selected'" } ?>

[Fazi]

Thanks dclamp for the info.

[dclamp]

no problem If your problem is solved, set it as resolved and give rep accordingly

[penagate]

It's <?php, not <?PHP.
Also, you need to specify the value attribute on each option.

An alternative way of doing it:

<?php
  $s = ' selected="selected"';
  $sel = $gender == 'male' ? array($s, '') : array('', $s);
?>
<select name="cmbgender" id="cmbgender">
  <option value="male"<?php echo $sel[0] ?>>Male</option>
  <option value="male"<?php echo $sel[1] ?>>Female</option>
</select>

This is overkill in this particular case, but preferable if the comparison is complex or the list of options is long, since it is only evaluated once per set of options instead of once per option.

[dclamp]

@pena: why is <?PHP not a correct way to open php tags?

[k1ll3rdr4g0n]

@pena: why is <?PHP not a correct way to open php tags?

http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.basic-syntax.php

All the ways the show it should be php not PHP.