Prefilling Forms

[Accurax]

Simple question here guys...

I have a form that allows a user to input information about themselves, now the first time they use this form all the firleds will be blank.... but id like them to be able to come back and update the information.

Is there anyway of making the form show the info that is held in the database for a given field?

Thanks chaps

[ted_chou12]

what you need to do is to read the information off your data first, do you use mysql or text files?
Ted

[taith]

yup! just set a value to the fields...
for example...
[code]<input type=text value="<?=$_POST[test]?>" name="test">[/code]

[Accurax]

Ahh... excellent

Would that work with drop down menu's and the "selected" attribute aswell ??

How about radio buttons and check box's ?

[ted_chou12]

radio:

[code]
<?php function check($a,$b){if($a == $b){echo "checked=\"yes\"";}}?>
eg form:
<input type="radio" name="test" value="a" <?php check("a",$b)?>>

drop down:
<select name="birthday" size="1">
<?php
$bdays = array('01','02','03','04','05','06','07','08','09','10','11','12','13','14','15','16','17','18','19','20','21','22','23','24','25','26','27','28','29','30','31',);
$bday_select = "";
foreach ($bdays as $bdays)
{$bday_select .= '<option value="' . $bdays . '"';
if ($bdays == $birthday) {$bday_select .= ' selected';}
$bday_select .= '>' . $bdays . '</option>';}
echo"$bday_select";?>
</select>
[/code]

where as $birthday is your stored variable.
Ted

[Accurax]

OUch... thats confused me now ......... can i not just use SELECT in the drop down menu "selected" attribute?

[ted_chou12]

If this is easier for you to understand:
<?php function check($a,$b){if($a == $b){echo " selected=\"selected\"";}}?>
<select name="test">
<option value="1" <?php check("1",$b)?>>Test1</option>
<option value="2" <?php check("2",$b)?>>Test2</option>
<option value="3" <?php check("3",$b)?>>Test3</option>
<option value="4" <?php check("4",$b)?>>Test4</option>
</select>

[taith]

yup... you can do it that way too if you want... but it if you were wanting your page more automated... you'd prolly want somin like this....

[code]
<?
function form_autodropbox($to=array(),$selected="",$name=""){
if(!is_array($to)) return FALSE;
$return .= '<select name="'.$name.'">';
foreach($to as $k => $v){
  if($k==$selected) $return .= '<option selected value="'.$v.'">'.ucwords($k).'</option>';
  else $return .= '<option value="'.$v.'">'.ucwords($k).'</option>';
}
$return .= '</select>';
return $return;
}

$to[test]="asdf";
$to[test2]="asdf";
$to[test3]="asdf";
$to[test4]="asdf";
echo form_autodropbox($to,"test3",'test')
?>
[/code]