Populating a dropdown field using php - php

Question

below code doesnot populate the list. i am trying populate a dropdown list from database but the below query doesnot populate the dropdownlist.
<form class="form-horizontal" role="form" method="post">
<div class="form-group">
<label for="inputLocation" class="col-sm-2 control-label">Location</label>
<div class="col-sm-4">
<select class="form-control" id="inputLocation" name="inputLocation">
<?php
$queryData = mysql_query("SELECT DISTINCT cat_name as cat_name FROM 'categories' ORDER BY `cat_name`");
$result = mysql_fetch_array(mysql_query($queryData)); //$result now has database tables
?>
<select name='cat_name'>
<?php
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
?>
<option values=<?php echo($row['cat_name']); ?><?php echo($row['cat_name']); ?></option>
<?php
}
?> </select>
</div>
</div>
</form>

Answer 1

So you seem to be calling mysql_query and fetching the array twice...
$result = mysql_fetch_array(mysql_query($queryData);
Should be changed to
$result = mysql_fetch_array($queryData);
Then further down, change
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
To...
foreach($result as $row)
You can always do
print_r($result);
To ensure you are getting data back from the query.
You also have two select tags, one of which isn't closed. Remove this top one
<select class="form-control" id="inputLocation" name="inputLocation">
Couple of other points to note:
The MySQL extension is depreciated, you should look into converting this query to MySQLi or PDO
You don't need brackets around an echo statement, just use
echo $variable;
Full edited code here
http://ideone.com/GASwcB