Drop down menu with form data - php

Question

I need to make a drop down menu that defaults to the account type passed in via a form.
I know that I can put 'selected' as an option attribute to make that option the default selection.
But I don't always know what the type will be, so how would I go about making it default to match the type.
Here is my Code :
<?php
$type=$_POST['Type'];
echo "<select name='AccType'>
<option>User Type</option>
<option value='admin'>Administrator</option>
<option value='ban'>Banned</option>
<option value='mod'>Moderator</option>
<option value='new'>New User</option>
<option value='spec'>Special</option>
</select>";
?>
So say for example, an account in the moderator group is being edited, so the 'mod' type is passed in by the form.
I want the page to display 'Moderator' in the menu by default so that the user doesn't have to select it to make sure the account stays as Moderator in case they submit without checking.
Is this possible with just PHP and HTML ?

Answer 1

You could do something like this: make an array of all the option values and texts:
$options = array( 'admin' => "Administrator", 'ban' => "Banned", 'mod' => "Moderator", 'new' => "New User", 'spec' => "Special" );
Each key corresponds to a option value, and each value in the array corresponds to the text displayed to the user.
Then, you would just display the option that is being submitted in the $_POST variable first.
<?php
$type = $_POST['type'];
echo "<select name='AccType'>";
echo "<option disabled>User Type</option>"; // note disabled attribute.
if(array_key_exists($type)) {
echo "<option value='$type' selected>$options[$type]</option>";
}
// echo the rest of the fields.
for($options as $value => $text) {
if(strcmp($value, $type) !== 0) {
echo "<option value='$value'>$text</option>";
}
}
echo "</select>";
?>

Answer 2

Try this-
<?php
$type=$_POST['Type'];
$data=array(
'admin'=>'Administrator',
'ban'=>'Banned',
'mod'=>'Moderator',
'new'=>'New User',
'spec'=>'Special',
);
echo "<select name='AccType'>";
echo "<option value='.$type.' selected='selected' >.$data[$type].</option>";
foreach($data as $key=>$val)
{
if($key!=$type)
{
echo "<option value='.$key.'>.$val.</option>";
}
}
echo "</select>";
?>