Confusing Layout for a Selection List help

[ciber]

OK hopefully this makes sense

I have a mysql table, which has an id, an a category name.

My product table has its information, and a category id.

 

Now my problem, when I am editing a product, I want the category to be selected. How do I get php to echo all the items in the category, but get it to also add the selected attribute to the item which is selected in the products database

 

Thanks

[scampbell]

Make a function to display it and pass the variable to it. Here is one I wrote to select formats for an old project

function formats($val=""){
    echo "<select name='formats' class='vshort'>\n<option value='0' rel='none'>Format</option>\n";
    $c_q = @debug_mysql_query("SELECT format_id, format_name, format_rel FROM album_format");
    while($c = mysql_fetch_array($c_q)){
        $cid = $c["format_id"];
        $name = htmlize($c["format_name"]);
        $selected = ($cid == $val)?"selected":"";
        echo "<option $selected value='$cid' rel='" . $c[format_rel] . "'>$name</option>\n";}
    echo "</select>";
}

 

Theres some functions in there you will need to change but hopefully it gives you an idea.