Re: RE: [newbie] drop down boxes

On Sun, 6 Apr 2003, Bobby Rahman wrote: > > Hiya, > > I have created a dynamic table within my form. > Above the table I want to insert a filter to order by:<the column names> > > Here is the static list: > <select name="select4"> > <option>Severity</option> > <option>Crash</option> > <option>Major</option> > <option>Minor</option> > <option>Review</option> > </select> > > What I need suggestions on is: > 1. recommended tutorials on lists and logic behind them. > 2. How does the selected item in the list get stored (a variable?)and how > can I place that in such a way to ORDER BY <$filter_selected> > 3. also simple snippets of code always is appreciated (No one wants to > reinvent the wheel) :) Checkbox, select, input text, textarea, who cares ... it all comes out the same. Read this: http://www.php.net/variables.external The real question is is your form POST or GET, you will find the answer within the above manual page on how to retrieve the value. Hint: $_POST['select4']; Now let's say you want to make sure it's appropriate first, and then create the query, here's an example: $selects = array('severity','crash','major','minor','review'); $select = strtolower($_POST['select4']); if (!in_array($select, $selects)) { $select = 'severity'; } $sql = "SELECT a FROM b ORDER BY $select LIMIT 40": Of course that assumes those are table names in your db. You may want to be a little more user friendly and do for example: <option value='severity'>The Severity blah blah</option> Regards, Philip