Spit data to the select field from the database - php

Question

enter image description hereI am new to coding. I just started building a website and I am currently working on the profile page. I wanted the input fields to be populated by the information the user has provided (see attached picture). This I have achieved.
My problem now is... I can't spit information from the database to the select tag.
For the other input fields, I just had to echo the data spooled from the database as seen in my HTML below:
<div class="col-sm-6 white-bg">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-sm-6">
<label>
<span class="text-left">FIRST NAME</span>
<input type="text" name="fname" value="<?php echo $first_name ?>" disabled>
</label>
</div>
<div class="col-sm-6">
<label>
<span class="text-left">LAST NAME</span>
<input type="text" name="lname" value="<?php echo $last_name ?>" disabled>
</label>
</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="col-sm-6">
<label>
<span class="text-left">GENDER</span>
<select name="gender">
<option value="" disabled hidden selected>--Select--</option>
<option value="Female">Female</option>
<option value="Male">Male</option>
<option value="Others">Others</option>
</select>
</label>
</div>
<div class="col-sm-6">
<label>
<span class="text-left">DATE OF BIRTH</span>
<input type="DATE" name="dob" value="<?php echo $dob ?>">
</label>
</div>
</div>
</div>
But I can't do the same for the select tag. How do I have an option selected based on the information the user has provided such that the Male option is selected if the user entered male or the the Female option is selected if the user entered Female.

Answer 1

You should add the keyword based on the value returned from your DB.
So in your code add something like
-- For your default select option do
<?php echo(empty($theGender)?" selected":""); ?>
-- For Male/Female do, checking for value you stored
<option value="Female"<?php echo(($theGender === "female")?" selected":""); ?> >Female</option>