Re: Dropdown Building Function

And of course, I am finding that this way of yours is the easiest!! Thanks, again, Kristen JJ Kristen G. Thorson wrote:

I'm not 100% sure where you're saying you're stuck, but I think you're trying to do with one query what you will probably find is best to do with several. Hopefully the following will help some: //first get all the questions $sql = "select * from questions"; $result = mysql_query( $sql ); //now one-by-one go through the questions while( $row = mysql_fetch_row( $result ) { //create the drop down box for THIS question echo '<select name="'.$row['question_text'].'">'; //get all of the answers for THIS question $ans_sql = "select * from answers where question_id=".$row['question_id']; $ans_result = mysql_query( $ans_sql ); while( $ans_row = mysql_fetch_row( $ans_result ) ) {

      //list the answers for THIS question
      echo '<option value="'.$ans_row['answer_id'].'">'.$ans_row['answer_text'].'</option>';

} echo '</select>'; } outputs: <select name="question1"> <option value="1">answer 1</option> <option value="2">answer 2</option> <option value="3">answer 3</option> <select name="question2"> <option value="1">answer 1</option> <option value="2">answer 2</option> <option value="3">answer 3</option> <option value="4">answer 4</option> <option value="5">answer 5</option> It requires numerous DB calls, but I believe in most cases, it's still better than what you'd have to do otherwise (create some arrays and do some sorting, etc.). That is, if I've understood what you need ;) kgt Jack Jackson wrote:

Hi, can anyone even point me in a *direction*? I suppose this is the most complex thing I've ever tried to do and I have been at it for tens of hours and am still completely baffled. Jack Jackson wrote:

Hi, because that last topic on multipage forms was so exciting, I decided to database the questions as well. I wonder if anyone can help me with a function to pull rows into dropdown boxes. It's a 1:n relationship between questions and answers, and I have a table of questions q_id q_name q_text q_style //dropdown, radio, checkboxes q_cat //question category and a table full of answers a_id q_id a_answer When I do

    $fields = 'SELECT *';
    $from = 'FROM questions,answers';
    $sort = "ORDER BY questions.q_cat";
    $where = "WHERE answers.q_id=questions.q_id";

// construct the sql query: $sql = "$fields $from $where $sort"; // Run SQL query 1 if (!($result = mysql_query($sql))) { echo "Could not connect to the database ($sql)" . mysql_error(); } while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) { I need to loop through the results and make a dropdown list from them, taking the question name as the select name, and then making each answer id and answer text the makings of an option ros. Based on a problem a while ago which was similar but different, someone here actually made me a function *similar* to what I need to do now, This one acts different and I just cannot adapt the old one, because I still get confused at this level. I think it wants to be something like (and note that part of the return is the code to react to error checking results): $dropdown[] = '<option <?php if (' . $q_name . ' == "' . $a_id . '") echo "selected "; ?> value=\'' . $a_id . '\'>' . $a_answer . '</option>';

    etc for all $a_answer(s)...
    and then
    return '<?php if (sizeof($message[\'' . $q_name . '\'])){ echo "<div class='error'>"; } ?>
    <div class=\'row\'>
    <select class=\'answer\' name=\'' . $q_name . '\'>
    <option value=\'\'>Select from this list</option>'
             join('',$dropdown)
             . '</select></div>'
     . '<?php if (sizeof($message[\''. $q_name '\'])){ echo "</div><!--/error-->"; } ?>';

Can anyone point me at the right direction? Thanks!! JJ