Populate select menu from PHP/MySQL using javascript array - php

Question

I have this code:
<script>
var values = <?php
$sql="SELECT * FROM billing_sagenominalcodes order by code ASC";
$rs=mysql_query($sql,$conn) or die(mysql_error());
$nominalcodes = array();
while($result=mysql_fetch_assoc($rs))
{
$nominalcodes[] = $result['code'];
}
echo json_encode($nominalcodes);
?>;
</script>
<select name="sagenominalcode" id="sagenominalcode">
<script>addOptions(document.getElementById('sagenominalcode'), values);</script>
</select>
it works exactly how i need it to but i am wondering if it is possible to display the column name "name" from the database in the select options as well as the code?
for example rather than just
123
to have it like this
123 - name

Answer 1

You'll want to rigidly separate your php and your js. The way the code is written will work as is, but is very brittle, and can break catastrophically, leading to action-at-a-distance style bugs.
For example, if your database schema were refactored to remove the code column, then your javascript would be rendered broken, with a cause that nobody would suspect.
That said, if you'd like to also display the data in the name column in the select options, you'll have to pass that data into $nominalcodes as well. Right now, it contains an indexed array of data (perhaps an int or a string), but you'll want to change that so it contains an indexed array of arrays.
So, before:
$nominalcodes = array(1,3,5,78,3,2,234);
and after:
$nominalcodes = array(
array(1, 'foobar'),
array(3, 'larry'),
array(5, 'bob'),
...
);
At this point, you'll have to refactor your javascript addOptions function so that it can properly parse an array of arrays, instead of an array of single values.