Specify a default selected item for HTML form drop-downs

Question

Typically when you need to select an item by default, you do:

<select>
  <option value="1">                 Volvo  </option>
  <option value="2" selected="true"> Saab  </option>
  <option value="3">                 Mercedes  </option>
  <option value="4">                 Audi  </option>
</select>

Is it possible to get something like this?

<select selectedValue="2">
  <option value="1">  Volvo  </option>
  <option value="2">  Saab  </option>
  <option value="3">  Mercedes  </option>
  <option value="4">  Audi  </option>
</select>

It works out easier in PHP since you only have to soft-code one value, instead of handling the selected attribute on any possible <option/>.

Answer 1

Put JavaScript after the declaration of the listbox and set the selected index there:

<script>
document.getElementById('listBoxId').selectedIndex=<?php echo $INDEX ?>;
</script>

Something like this.

Answer 2

There is no attribute like that on the <select> element. Assuming your <option> output is in a loop, I don't see how it makes a huge difference:

$selected = "2";
foreach($values as $key => $val) {
    echo "<option value=\"" . $key . "\"" . ($key == $selected ? " selected=\"selected\">" : ">") . $val . "</option>";
}

(my PHP is a little rusty, that may not be 100% correct)

Answer 3

No, but you can add your default value to your id like

<select id="default-value-2">

then in your options, you have

<option value="2" <?php echo is_this_the_default_value ? selected='true' : '' ?>

or something to that effect(forgive me i forgot my php syntax, but i hope you get the point).

Anyway, that is a dirty fix also, so i suggest just adding a method to check for the default selected tag and printing it selected="selected" when it is the default. You can just call it once if you loop through your select options

Answer 4

unfortunately, no. it is not possible =/