Dropdown option not being selected - php

Question

I have the following code to build a dropdown form field:
if ($current_user->ID) {
$output .= '
<form action="" method="POST" class="profileForm" onSubmit="return validateMobile()">
<div class="formField">
<label for="tenant_title">Title</label>
<select name="tenant_title">
<option value="Mr"' . titleSelected('Mr') . '>
Mr
</option>
<option value="Miss"' . titleSelected('Miss') . '>
Miss
</option>
<option value="Mrs"' . titleSelected('Mrs') . '>
Mrs
</option>
<option value="Ms"' . titleSelected('Ms') . '>
Ms
</option>
</select>
</div>
And this function that checks what's already in the database:
function titleSelected($value){
if ($tenant_details->tenant_title == $value) return 'selected';
return false;
}
The problem is it always defaults to 'Mr', which is the first option, regardless of what's in the database.
What am I missing?
I'm still very much a newbie with php, so please be gentle... :)

Answer 1

The problem with your code is that you can't compare $tenant_details->tenant_title to a value, since the $tenant_details was requested outside your function. To learn more about scope of a variable check out PHP variable scope
There are 2 ways of solving it:
You just pass the object into your function:
titleSelected($tenant_details, 'Ms');
function titleSelected($tenant_details->tenant_title, $val2){
if ($tenant_details->tenant_title == $val) {
return 'selected';
}
return "";
}
Just pass the value alone and compare:
titleSelected($tenant_details->tenant_title, 'Ms');
function titleSelected($val1, $val2){
if ($val1 == $val2) {
return 'selected';
}
return "";
}

Answer 2

Instead of selected you should return selected="selected", like this:
function titleSelected($value){
if ($tenant_details->tenant_title == $value) return 'selected="selected"';
return false;
}
<div class="formField">
<label for="tenant_title">Title</label>
<select name="tenant_title">
<option value="Mr" <?php echo titleSelected('Mr'); ?>>
Mr
</option>
<option value="Miss" <?php echo titleSelected('Miss'); ?>>
Miss
</option>
<option value="Mrs" <?php echo titleSelected('Mrs'); ?>>
Mrs
</option>
<option value="Ms" <?php echo titleSelected('Ms'); ?>>
Ms
</option>
</select>
</div>
Edited:
function titleSelected($value){
if ($tenant_details->tenant_title == $value) return 'selected';
return false;
}
function some_function(){
// your code
$output = ''; // initialize $output somewhere outside of if block
if ($current_user->ID){
$output .= '
<form action="" method="POST" class="profileForm" onSubmit="return validateMobile()">
<div class="formField">
<label for="tenant_title">Title</label>
<select name="tenant_title">
<option value="Mr"' . titleSelected('Mr') . '>
Mr
</option>
<option value="Miss"' . titleSelected('Miss') . '>
Miss
</option>
<option value="Mrs"' . titleSelected('Mrs') . '>
Mrs
</option>
<option value="Ms"' . titleSelected('Ms') . '>
Ms
</option>
</select>
</div>
</form>';
}
return $output;
}
echo some_function();