show selected value from dropdown - php

Question

Hi i have been working on a form wherein there's a dropdown menu and it's values are from the database. My problem is it doesnt show the value selected after submitting the form. what maybe the problem?
<select name="professional" />
<option value="">Choose one</option>
<?php
$result2 = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM professional");
while($row2 = mysql_fetch_array($result2))
{
$prc = $row2['name'];
$prof = $row2['prcno'] ."\t"."|\t". $row2['name'] ."\t"."|\t".$row2['profession'];
echo "<option value ='$prc'>$prof</option>";
}
?>
</select>
<select name="professional" disabled/>
<option value="">Choose one</option>
<?php
$result2 = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM professional");
$i=0;
while($row2 = mysql_fetch_array($result2))
{
$prc = $row2['name'];
$p1[$i] = $prc;
$prof = $row2['prcno'] ."\t"."|\t". $row2['name'] ."\t"."|\t".$row2['profession'];
$p2[$i] = $prof;
if($_POST['professional'] == $p1[$i])
{
echo "<option selected value ='$p1[$i]'>$p2[$i]</option>";
}
else
{
echo "<option value ='$p1[$i]'>$p2[$i]</option>";
}
}
?>
</select>

Answer 1

It seems to me, you're not incrementing $i, so you keep overwriting $p1[0] and $p2[0] in each iteration of the while-loop.
So add $i++ at the beginning or the end of your loop - or drop the whole use of these to arrays ($p1 and $p2) and use $prc and $prof just as you do in the first code-block - or do you need them for something?
Another thing, try removing the space between value and ='$p1[$i]' - but I'm not sure if that's a problem.

Answer 2

Try
selected="selected"
in stead of
selected

Answer 3

change these lines to
echo "<option selected value ='<?php echo $p1[$i]; ?>'><?php echo $p2[$i]; ?></option>";
and do not forget to increment your $i too
Hope it will help :)