How do I echo previously chosen dropdown value in codeigniter? - php

Question

This code works well in terms of adding new entry with this dropdown category. My problem is, this sets Option1 as the default value to make sure the dropdown is not left unanswered. My question is, how do I echo the previously saved value for dropdown category? I should have it correctly displayed so I can do edit function correctly.
<tr>
<span style="font-size: 10pt" class="label label-info">Category</span><br/>
<? $options = array
(
'1' => 'Option1',
'2' => 'Option2',
'3' => 'Option3',
'4' => 'Option4',
); ?>
<?php echo form_dropdown('category_id', $options, 'Option1');?>
</tr>
I am looking forward to any help.
Have a nice day! :)

Answer 1

EDIT: this works (by the way there are good classes to handle forms with codeigniter out there, where you don't have to use all this code for each field and that manage validation rules etc. in a much more flexible way - keeping the view and controller very simple and moving most of it into models).
<?php $model = array(
array('value' => '1', 'display' => 'Option1'),
array('value' => '2', 'display' => 'Option2'),
array('value' => '3', 'display' => 'Option3'));
echo '<select name="category_id">';
foreach($model as $i) echo '<option '.($this->input->post('category_id') === $i['value'] ? 'selected="selected"' : '').' value="'.$i['value'].'">'.$i['display'].'</option>';
echo '</select>';
?>

Answer 2

in ref from your question : Edit form echoes previously saved data correctly but does not update the form fields
<?php
foreach($model as $row)
{
if($row="" )
{
$selected_category_id = '';
$options = array
(
'1' => 'Option1',
'2' => 'Option2',
'3' => 'Option3',
'4' => 'Option4',
); ?>
<?php echo form_dropdown('category_id', $options, $selected_category_id);?>
}
else
{
$selected_category_id = '$row->(database column name where vale is stored)';
$options = array
(
'1' => 'Option1',
'2' => 'Option2',
'3' => 'Option3',
'4' => 'Option4',
); ?>
<?php echo form_dropdown('category_id', $options, $selected_category_id);?>
}
}