Choice in order of priority in forms (ordering 5 choices in order of priority)

Question

I am trying to create a form for my php/mysql application. I want my users to list the priority of thier choices where they have 5 options and they have to choose each in order of preference

Answer 1

Why not simply provide five slots (one under the other) for each of the choices and provide a higher/lower control on the right of each to change the order? That's always more attractive than assigning an out-of-order sequence number.

For example, start with:

Favorite Friends:
    1 Pax             ^   v
    2 Litb            ^   v
    3 Jon Skeet       ^   v
    4 VonC            ^   v
    5 Jeff Atwood     ^   v

Then, if you want to bump Jon up to position 2, just click on the "^" next to his name once.

Favorite Friends:
    1 Pax             ^   v
    2 Jon Skeet       ^   v
    3 Litb            ^   v
    4 VonC            ^   v
    5 Jeff Atwood     ^   v

If, for some reason, you think I've wronged you (and I'm truly sorry :-), click on my "v" character four times and you end up with:

Favorite Friends:
    1 Jon Skeet       ^   v
    2 Litb            ^   v
    3 VonC            ^   v
    4 Jeff Atwood     ^   v
    5 Pax             ^   v

This variable-position/fixed-number is (IMNSHO) much better than the fixed-position/variable-number solution thus:

Favorite Friends:
    5 Pax
    2 Litb
    1 Jon Skeet
    3 VonC
    4 Jeff Atwood

Answer 2

I would place a text input next to each field, with brief instructions stating how the control works. For JavaScript disabled clients you can simply validate that each input contains a unique integer from 1 to 5.

For JavaScript-enabled clients, the jQuery UI library has you covered.