$_POST not working with <select> - php

Question

I can get the $_POST working perfectly with the inputs but not with the select statements for some reason. Here is my code:
registration.php
<form class="form-horizontal" action="results.php" method="post">
<div class="form-group">
<label class="col-md-4 control-label" for="user_type">Type</label>
<div class="col-md-4">
<select id="user_type" name='user_type' class="form-control">
<option selected="" value="<?php if (isset($user_type)) { echo 'admin'; } ?>">Faculty</option>
<option value="<?php if (isset($user_type)) { echo 'registeredUser'; } ?>">Student</option>
</select>
</div>
</div>
<!-- Submit Button -->
<div class="form-group">
<div class="col-md-12">
<button id="submit" name="submit" class="btn btn-primary center-block"> <span class="k-icon k-si-plus"></span>Submit</button>
</div>
</div>
</form>
results.php
if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST")
{
// Setting the form inputs to variables
$first_name = trim($_POST["first_name"]);
$last_name = trim($_POST["last_name"]);
$email_address = trim($_POST["email_address"]);
if (isset($_POST["submit"])) {
$user_type = $_POST['user_type'];
echo $user_type . '<br><br>';
}
echo $first_name . '<br><br>';
echo $last_name . '<br><br>';
echo $email_address . '<br><br>';
}
ouput:
Alex
Cory
alex#mydomain.com
Any Ideas as to why this $_POST['user_type']; isn't working?

Answer 1

Assuming that what you have posted is the complete contents of registration.php then the issue is that your value for each of the user_name options contains an empty string.
The actual HTML that your script generates is:
<select id="user_type" name='user_type' class="form-control">
<option selected="" value="">Faculty</option>
<option value="">Student</option>
</select>
This is happening because your registration.php script is checking if the PHP variable $user_data is set before adding the values of admin or registeredUser to the <option> tags.
If we expand your code you can see that the if condition will never fire:
<option selected="" value="<?php
if (isset($user_type)) {
// This will never be fired because the PHP variable $user_data is not set.
echo 'admin';
}
// The result is that nothing is echoed so the HTML reads value=""
?>">Faculty</option>
To fix, then either remove the conditional check:
<select id="user_type" name='user_type' class="form-control">
<option selected="selected" value="admin">Faculty</option>
<option value="registeredUser">Student</option>
</select>
Or set $user_data at the start of the script:
<?php $user_data = true; ?>
<form class="form-horizontal" action="results.php" method="post">
<div class="form-group">
...
But what I think you are really trying to achieve is to determine which of these options to populate as selected in your form. If this is the case, you should check that $user_type is set and if it's value matches the option value, mark that option as selected.
<select id="user_type" name='user_type' class="form-control">
<option <?php
if (isset($user_type) && $user_type === 'admin') {
echo 'selected="selected" ';
}
?>value="admin">Faculty</option>
<option <?php
if (isset($user_type) && $user_type === 'registeredUser') {
echo 'selected="selected" ';
}
?>value="registeredUser">Student</option>
</select>

Answer 2

I cant see the submit button in your code, does it have name='submit' on it ?
Additionally if you are using chrome inspect the post in network(developer tools) to see if 'submit' is posted

Answer 3

This happens because both of your options under select id="user_type" have no values when registration.php is executed.
<option value="<?php if (isset($user_type)) { echo 'registeredUser'; } ?>">Student</option>
If $user_type is not defined the value for both options will be "" (empty string) - and I assume this is what happens.

Answer 4

Here's the Answer
The problem had a little to do with PHP and also a little to do with HTML. PassKit did a great job explaining the PHP which I ended up using in my code to make it work properly. Look to his answer about the PHP and mine about the HTML.
The opening < form > tag needed an "id" attribute that matched the < select > tag's "form" attribute which neither of them had.
Solution:
<form id="user-form" class="form-horizontal" action="results.php" method="post">
right here -^ needed: id="someFormID"
<!-- Faculty or Student? DROP-DOWN -->
<div class="form-group">
<label class="col-md-4 control-label" for="user_type">Type</label>
<div class="col-md-4">
<select form="user-form" id="user_type" name='user_type' class="form-control">
right here ---------------------^ needed: form="someFormID"
<option <?php
if (isset($user_type) && $user_type === 'admin')
{
echo 'selected="selected" ';
}
?>value="admin">Faculty</option>
<option <?php
if (isset($user_type) && $user_type === 'registeredUser')
{
echo 'selected="selected" ';
}
?>value="registeredUser">Student</option>
</select>
</div>
</div>
<!-- Submit Button -->
<div class="form-group">
<div class="col-md-12">
<button id="singlebutton" name="submit" class="btn btn-primary center-block"> <span class="k-icon k-si-plus"></span>Submit</button>
</div>
</div>
</form>

Answer 5

use submit button in your form or check post with if($_POST)