Re: populate form input option dropdown box from existing data

At 6:09 PM -0400 6/15/09, PJ wrote:

I am having difficulties figuring out how enter retrieved data into a dropdown box for editing. Here's a snippet: ...snip <select name="categoriesIN[]" multiple size="8">

        <option value="1">Civilization</option>
        <option value="2">Monuments, Temples &amp; Tombs</option>
        <option value="3">Pharaohs and Queens</option>... snip

As I understand it, I need to put an array ( $categoriesIN[] ) somewhere in the above code... or do I need to insert a series of value "selected" fields for the values? The closest thing to what I need, seems to be in this post: http://www.hpfreaks.com/forums/index.php?topic=165215 But it doesn't appear too inviting... not sure if they ever got it to work...

Think about it. A Select control returns *one* value and not an array. As such you don't need to provide an array to collect a single value. Here's the solution: HTML <select name="categories" > <option value="1">Civilization</option> <option value="2">Monuments, Temples &amp; Tombs</option> <option value="3">Pharaohs and Queens</option> </select> PHP $category = $_POST['categories']; The variable $category will contain 1, 2, or 3 after a post form submit. Try it. The reference/link you cite above is for a dynamic select control that incorporates javascript to populate the second select control. It's not a simple select. If you are looking to understand what basic html does, try this: http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/ I often use this site to refresh my failing memory about html stuff. Cheers, tedd -- ------- http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com