Using Selected is not displaying anything in dropdownlist - php

Question

I'm displayed a dropdown list of initials that come from a table. I insert "--" at the start before getting the initials from the table.
It goes:
AB
CD
EF
I want it to select the default. $init is the defaulkt
The code below works for '--' but not for the initials.
On the While, if I remove the if statement and just leave the 'else'
echo "<option value='" . $row['id'] . "'>" . $row['init'] . " ";
it is OK.
The first half of the if statement should be the same but with 'selected added.
I don't understand why it is not working.
All I get is "--", not the initials, or any other following input.
Thanks for your help.
<?php
echo $init;
// Drop down list initials
$conn=createconnection();
$sql = "SELECT * FROM employees WHERE lef='0' AND man='1' ORDER BY init";
$result = $conn->query($sql);
if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
echo "Updated by and date<br>";
echo "<select name='select_initial' id='select_initial'>";
if ($init==="--"){
echo "<option value='" . '0' . "'selected>" .'--' . " </option>";
} else {
echo "<option value='" . '0' . "'>" . '--' . " </option>";
}
// output data of each row
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
if ($init===$row('init')) {
echo "<option value='" . $row['id'] . "'selected>" . $row['init'] . " </option>";
} else {
echo "<option value='" . $row['id'] . "'>" . $row['init'] . " </option>";
}
}
echo "</select>";
//echo "<br><br>";
}
$conn->close();
?>

Answer 1

I found if I used square brackets round the $row function it worked:
if ($init===$row['init']) {