Dropdown menu inside a table - then update - php

Question

I have a table populated from a mysql database. One of the fields is "status". I would like this cell to be a drop down box inside the table, so I can then update the particular field.
This code, correctly displays the table and currently it displays the "status" filed inside a text box that I can edit successfully. I would like this to be a drop down though.
<?php
require_once('db_connect.php');
$result = mysql_query("SELECT *
FROM queries
WHERE SR = '$_GET[SR]'
")
or die(mysql_error());
echo '<form name="Form" action="update.php" method="post">';
echo
"<table id='box-table-b'>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>SR</th>
<th>Product</th>
<th>Status</th>
</tr>
</thead>";
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
echo "<tbody>";
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>" . $row['SR'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $row['product'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . '<input type="text" name="status" value="'.$row['status'].'" />' . "</td>";
echo "</tr>";
echo "</tbody>";
}
echo "</table>";
echo '<input type="submit" name="Save" value="Save" />';
echo '</form>';
?>
Can someone please show me how to do this ?

Answer 1

To answer the question, you should use the <select></select> tags. Example:
<select>
<option>Item 1</option>
<option>Item 2</option>
<option> ... </option>
<option selected="selected">Item N</option>
</select>
In this specific example, the dropdown would appear with "Item N" selected by default.
As a side note, isn't using mysql_* functions bad practice in general?

Answer 2

by drop down menu I guess you mean a select tag, anything more complicated that this requires a custom implementation.
This requires 2 steps: first you need to create the select tag and populate it with option tags, then you need to set the desired value as selected.
to create the select tag:
$myselect="<select id='status' name='status'>";
foreach($status_values as $e){
$myselect.="<option value='$e'>$e</option>";
}
$myselect.="</select>";
$status_value is a array, you can have in your code or get it from a query.
To select the correct one you can add the following if to the code above:
$myselect="<select id='status' name='status'>";
foreach($status_values as $e){
if($e == $row['status']){
$myselect.="<option value='$e' SELECTED>$e</option>";
}else
$myselect.="<option value='$e'>$e</option>";
}
}
$myselect.="</select>";