select option pre-filled from mysql database

[brem13]

hey, i have a profile page with options to edit, and i was wondering how i would go about having the options pre-selected if they are already in a mysql database?

<select name="hair">
	<option name="brown">Brown</option>
	<option name="blonde" selected>Blonde</option>
	<option name="black">Black</option>
	<option name="red">Red</option>
	<option name="brunette">Brunette</option>
	<option name="auburn">Auburn</option>
	<option name="gray">Gray</option>
	<option name="white">White</option>
	<option name="other">Other</option>
	<option name=""></option>
</select>

like if someone already filled out the profile page and their hair color was gray, how would i have it automatically go to that in the drop down????

 

here is the mysql code

mysql_connect($server, $db_user, $db_pass) or die (mysql_error()); 
$result = mysql_db_query($database, "select * from $table WHERE email = '$email'") or die (mysql_error());
while($qry = mysql_fetch_array($result)){ 
	$gender = $qry['hair'];
}//end while

 

[wildteen88]

I would setup up an array of all hair colors, eg

$hair_colors = array('brown', 'blonde', 'black', 'red', 'brunette', etc etc);

 

I'd then use a foreach loop to dynamically generate the drop down menu and have a condition inside to it which compares the current color with that in the database. If there is a match add selected="selected" to the <option> tag.

echo '<select name="hair_color">';
foreach($hair_colors as $color)
{
    $selected = (($color == $qry['hair']) ? ' selected="selected"' : '');
    echo '<option value="'.$color.'"'.$selected.'>'.$color.'</option>';
}
echo '</select>';

[brem13]

thank you very much, it works! however i'm just wondering if you could briefly explain this line of code, i dont know what the ? and : are for?

 $selected = (($color == $qry['hair']) ? ' selected="selected"' : '');

 

[wildteen88]

The  ?: is called a ternary operator, basically an inline version of an if/else statement. The above can written as

if($color == $qry['hair'])
    $selected = ' selected="selected"'
else
     $selected = '';

[brem13]

ok, cool, thanks for your help!!