Create options for a select box using php - php

Question

I want to create a very simple <select> box containing just numbers, 1,2,3,etc.. So very simply I want
<select>
<option>1</option>
<option>2</option>
<option>3</option>
<option>4</option>
<option>5</option>
<option>6</option>
</select>
However, I would like to use PHP to generate the options instead of creating them all by hand.
How may I go about doing this?

Answer 1

You can use this:
<select>
<?php
define('MAX_OPTIONS', 6);
for($optionIndex=1; $optionIndex <= MAX_OPTIONS; $optionIndex++){
echo '<option>' . $optionIndex . '</option>';
}
?>
</select>
Please note that the open and close tag for <select> is direct output, its not PHP code, thus the PHP tags.
You could also just print it all through PHP:
<?php
define('MAX_OPTIONS', 6);
echo '<select>';
for($optionIndex=1; $optionIndex <= MAX_OPTIONS; $optionIndex++){
echo '<option>' . $optionIndex . '</option>';
}
echo '</select>';
?>
Hint
Finally, just to make a small step towards more structured programming, you could create a function:
<?php
function createSelectBox($optionCount){
$out = '<select>';
for($idx=1; $idx <= $optionCount; $idx++){
$out .= '<option>' . $idx . '</option>';
}
$out .= '</select>';
return $out;
}
?>
And then call it - from within PHP (!!) - like this:
<?php
echo createSelectBox(6);
?>
Since your generated HTML code will look nice and be functional, it won't serve any practical purpose because no select box can work without the <option> tags being served a value attribute (which should contain the value that represents the option).
If needed, read this to gain a better understanding of how select works

Answer 2

for ($i = 0; $i <= 10; $i++){
echo "<option>" . $i . "</option>";
}

Answer 3

<?php
function options($num) {
$options = '';
for ($i = 1; $i < $num + 1; $i++)
{
$options .= "\t<option>" . $i . "</option>\n";
}
return $options;
}
?>
<select>
<?php echo options(6); ?>
</select>
This function outputs the requested code.

Answer 4

You can create the selectbox using sprintf to make easier to organize the data.
<?php
function createSelectBox($arr){
$options= '<select>';
for($i=0; $i <= count($arr); $i++){
$options .= sprintf("<option value='%s'>%s</option>", $arr[$i]['ID'], $arr[$i]['title']);
}
$options .= '</select>';
return $options;
}
?>

Answer 5

I came a across this looking for a code fragment. I ended up writing a function its call and everything that goes with it (albeit here I've put the CSS inside style tags instead of a CSS file)
You can put this in and it'll work.
<?php
function createOptionBox($boxName,$boxClass ,$productArray){
$boxHtml = '<select name="'.$boxName.'" class="'.$boxClass.'">';
for($x=0;$x<count($productArray);$x+=2){
$boxHtml .= '<option value="'.$productArray[$x].'">'.$productArray[$x+1].'</option>';
}
$boxHtml .= '</select>';
return($boxHtml);
}
$productArray = array("1","ipad","2","phone");
$boxName = "products";
$boxClass = "productSelect";
$productDropDown = createOptionBox($boxName,$boxClass ,$productArray);
?>
<style>
.productSelect{
font-size:12pt;
padding: 5px;
}
</style>
<p><?php echo $productDropDown;?></p>
the productArray can easily be set up from a database - like mysql, by simply using array_push.
Hope this helps someone.