set values for a <form> element #solved

[maxim]

Hi,

i have a text box with a default value of null.

There is a particular button i have that once you press it, it populates a select menu with data from a database.
when a user selects a particular item in the select menu i wish to set the textbox value to "some string".

i can use the $_POST array superglobal to to retrevie the information i need, but how do i set it ?

[poirot]

For text, textarea and password fields you can use value="<?=$_POST['data']?>

For radio, checkbox, select fields you would have to use something to add 'checked="checked"', 'selected="selected"', and so on. It's harder.

[maxim]

i get a error [quote]Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_VARIABLE in /var/www/html/php/news_adder.php on line 32[/quote]

heres line 32

[code]<input type="text" name="title" value="<?php$_POST['title_value'] ?>"/>[/code]

also why do you have a "=" sign before the "$" sign when i do that i get a syntax error.

[poirot]

Try

[code]<input type="text" name="title" value="<?php echo $_POST['title_value'] ?>"/>[/code]

or

[code]<input type="text" name="title" value="<?= $_POST['title_value'] ?>"/>[/code]

[maxim]

putting the "echo" statment made it work - thanks alot for the quick reply and solution!

can believe i didnt think of it.

Just curious tho is that the only way to do it? what is the recomended way? all the books i have simply retrive values from forms. the only ones where they set values are for select menus.