PHP selection of drop down menu not storing in variable - php

Question

I have a simple table with staff names stored in the column f_operator_name.
I have a drop down menu in a php form with these staff names available for selection. Here is a snippet of the relevant the code:
<?php
echo "<h2>Operator: <select name=f_operator_id></h2>";
$sql="SELECT * FROM radio_archive_index_gui.t_operator ORDER BY f_operator_id";
$result = pg_query($connection, $sql);
if (!$result){
die("Error in SQL query: " . pg_last_error());
}
while ($arr = pg_fetch_array($result, null, PGSQL_ASSOC)){
$operator_id=$arr['f_operator_id'];
$operator=$arr['f_operator_name'];
echo "<option value='$operator'>$operator</option>";
}
echo "</select>";
##### submit form to carry out echo statement for testing purposes
echo "<ul>
<th><input type='submit' name='new' value='Confirm Information'/></th>
</form>
</ul>";
if (isset($_POST['new']))
{
echo $_POST['operator'];
}
?>
When someone selects the staff name I want it to be stored in a variable. I'm testing the submit form at the bottom which is intended to print out the name that has been selected ( in the variable operator), but it's not printing anything out. Can anyone see any issues?
EDIT *** Here's the updated code after some advice from Barmar with the variable information also, for some reason the echo statement still isn't working:
<?php
$connection = pg_connect("host=10.100.51.42 port=5432 dbname=reportingdb user=rai_gui password=password");
echo "<h2>Operator:</h2> <select name='f_operator_id'>";
$sql="SELECT * FROM radio_archive_index_gui.t_operator ORDER BY f_operator_id";
$result = pg_query($connection, $sql);
if (!$result){
die("Error in SQL query: " . pg_last_error());
}
while ($arr = pg_fetch_array($result, null, PGSQL_ASSOC)){
$operator_id=$arr['f_operator_id'];
$operator=$arr['f_operator_name'];
echo "<option value='$operator'>$operator</option>";
}
echo "</select>";
##### submit form to carry out echo statement for testing purposes
echo "<ul>
<th><input type='submit' name='new' value='Confirm Information'/></th>
</form>
</ul>";
if (isset($_POST['new']))
{
echo $_POST['f_operator_id'];
}
?>

Answer 1

You can't put <select> inside <h2> and then put the <option>s and </select> outside it. HTML elements have to be nested properly, and <option> has to be inside <select>.
Change it to:
echo "<h2>Operator:</h2> <select name='f_operator_id'>";
And the index in $_POST has to match the name of the <select>, so $_POST['operator'] should be $_POST['f_operator_id'].