Self Generating Preselected Dropdown List

[Sleeper]

Ok, I think I'm way over thinking this, and I've been sitting here for hours trying to figure out what I'm missing.

 

Using pdo and php to pull from a data base I want to generate a drop down list and already have any of the items that were alllready selected set as selected.

 

Now I was able to do something like

echo "<select class='form' name='subcategory' multiple='multiple' size='5'>\n";
$i = 0;
while ($i <= ($count-1)) {
	if ($category[$i]==$categoryname[0] || $category[$i]==$categoryname[1] || $category[$i]==$categoryname[2] || $category[$i]==$categoryname[3]){
		echo "<option value='$category[$i]' selected>$category[$i]</option>\n";
	}else{
		echo "<option value='$category[$i]'>$category[$i]</option>\n";
	}   	
$i++;
}   
echo "</select>";

This works just fine, however the categoryname value is manualy set. I need this to change as well based on how many categoryname options their are.

 

I was able to do ...

$A = 0;
while ($A <= ($addcount-1)){
 $arraytest[]='$category[$i]=='.$categoryname[$A];
$A++;
}

$arraytest=implode('||', $arraytest);

and that generates the "if" list, but I have no idea how to get that into the if statment without breaking it.

Any ideas? I'm sure I'm overthinking it here.

 

Thanks in advance.

[fastsol]

I didn't read through your code but based on your questions this might be of some help

http://amecms.com/article/Retaining-Drop-down-Selection-After-Form-Submit

[mac_gyver]

it would help if you posted some sample data for $category and $categoryname and what result you want from that data, but in_array() is probably part of the solution. - if(in_array($category[$i],$categoryname))

[mac_gyver]

based on what you posted, all that code can be replaced with the following -

echo "<select class='form' name='subcategory[]' multiple size='5'>\n";
foreach($category as $cat){
    $sel = in_array($cat,$categoryname) ? 'selected' : '';
    echo "<option value='$cat' $sel>$cat</option>\n";
}
echo "</select>";

note: for the select to work with multiple choices, the field name must be an array.

[Sleeper]

mac_gyver TYVM! that simplified things. I've self tought my self in all I know so I'm a bit short on knowlage in arrays. Still expanding my knowlage on that topic (and many others..lol)

 

One thing I did continue on to notice last night is that I needed to make sure the sub category didn't match the main catagory or it caused a glitched. So I ened up putting in an extra if to make sure if category == pgategory. You asked for some more info on what the variable are so in one example

//Existing Categories
$category=array(Remote-Start,Remote-Start-Alarm,Accessories);
//Preselected additional categories
$categoryname=array(Remote-Start-Alarm,Accessories);
//Parent Category
$pcategory="Remote-Start-Alarm";


echo "<select class='form' name='addlcategory[]' multiple='multiple' size='5'>\n";
$i = 0;
while ($i <= ($count-1)) {
	if ($category[$i]==$pcategory)
		echo "<option value='$category[$i]'>$category[$i]</option>\n";
	elseif ($category[$i]==$categoryname[0] || $category[$i]==$categoryname[1] || $category[$i]==$categoryname[2] || $category[$i]==$categoryname[3]){
		echo "<option value='$category[$i]' selected>$category[$i]</option>\n";
	}else{
		echo "<option value='$category[$i]'>$category[$i]</option>\n";
	}   	
$i++;
}   
echo "</select>";

So in this case I would only want the option of Accessories to be preselected as the other is already the parent category.

As I will need to read up more on why your coding works, I'm not sure how I would add that into it. Sorry to ask for more help after you allready answered the orginal question, but I hope you don't mind.

 

Thank You in advance.

Jim

[Sleeper]

Did I say something to scare everyone away or upset them? Post went dead after I asked that last part.

[Sleeper]

After spending some time reading up I was able to use..

echo "<select class='form' name='addlcategory[]' multiple size='5'>\n";
foreach($category as $cat){
	if ($cat == $pcategory){
		echo "<option value='$cat'>$cat</option>\n";
	}else{
    $sel = in_array($cat,$categoryname) ? 'selected' : '';
    echo "<option value='$cat' $sel>$cat</option>\n";
}}
echo "</select>";

Seems to work.

 

Thanks for the help.