Trouble pre-populating drop down and textarea from MySQL Database

Question

I am able to successfully pre-populate my questions using the following code: First Name: <input type="text" name="first_name" size="30" maxlength="20" value="' . $row[2] . '" /><br />

However, when I try to do the same for a drop down box and a textarea box, nothing is pre-populated from the database, even though there is actual content in the database. This is the code I'm using for the drop down and textarea, respectively:

<?php echo ' <form action ="edit_contact.php" method="post"> <div class="contactfirstcolumn"> Prefix: <select name = "prefix" value="' . $row[0] . '" /> <option value="blank">--</option> <option value="Dr">Dr.</option> <option value="Mr">Mr.</option> <option value="Mrs">Mrs.</option> <option value="Ms">Ms.</option> </select><br />'; ?>

AND

Contact Description:<textarea id = "contactdesc" name="contactdesc" rows="3" cols="50" value="' . $row[20] . '" /></textarea><br /><br />

It's important to note that I am not receiving any errors. The form loads fine, however without the data for the drop down and textarea fields.

Thanks! Tony

Answer 1

Hi there. Select doesn't work that way.

If you want to pre populate select, you can try this way:

$predata = array(
    'blank' => '--',
    'Dr' => 'Dr.',
    'Mr' => 'Mr.',
    'Mrs' => 'Mrs.',
    'Ms' => 'Ms.',
);

echo "<select name='prefix'>";
    foreach($predata as $value => $label){
        echo "<option value='$value' ".($value == $row[0] ? 'selected="selected"' : '').">$label</option>";
    }
echo "</select>";