drodown list php - php

Question

I have a profile page in php for the user to set up his profile. The profile page prompts the user to set the gender.This is the code:
<form action='database.php' method=post>
<select name="myvalue">
<option value=" ">--select--</option>
<option value="male">male</option>
<option value="female">female</option>
</select>
<input type=submit>
</form>
after the user selects the gender, the following code gets the selection
$myvalue=$_POST['myvalue'];
and then by using a function stores value in database.
Next time that the user will visit his profile page, I want the dropdown list to show the value that selected before. For example lets say that the user selects as gender "male" the first time created his profile. If he visits again the profile page, the dropdown list must have automated as selected value, the value "male".

Answer 1

Try this :
<?php
$gender = /// fetch value from database
?>
<form action='database.php' method=post>
<select name="myvalue">
<option value=" ">--select--</option>
<option value="male" <?php if($gender == "male"){?> selected="selected" <?php }?>>male</option>
<option value="female" <?php if($gender == "female"){?> selected="selected" <?php }?>>female</option>
</select>
<input type=submit>
</form>

Answer 2

To set a option field as default selected you can use the selected keyword
<select name="myvalue">
<option value=" ">--select--</option>
<option value="male" selected>male</option>
<option value="female">female</option>
</select>
if you use xml document type you have to use
<select name="myvalue">
<option value=" ">--select--</option>
<option value="male" selected="selected">male</option>
<option value="female">female</option>
</select>
it's up to you to load values from cookie or database for that user and then perform checks to echo the "selected" value into that option field

Answer 3

Just check agains value and show selected="selected" in html
<?php
$value = $_POST['myvalue'];
?>
<form action='database.php' method=post>
<select name="myvalue">
<option value=" " <?php echo $value==' ' ? 'selected="selected"' : ''; ?> >--select--</option>
<option value="male" <?php echo $value=='male' ? 'selected="selected"' : ''; ?> >male</option>
<option value="female" <?php echo $value=='female' ? 'selected="selected"' : ''; ?> >female</option>
</select>
<input type=submit>
</form>

Answer 4

Something like this:
<form action='database.php' method=post>
<select name="myvalue">
<option value=" ">--select--</option>
<option value="male" <?php echo $gender=="male"?"selected":""; ?>>male</option>
<option value="female" <?php echo $gender=="female"?"selected":""; ?>>female</option>
</select>
<input type=submit>
</form>
But better would be to use a decent template system.

Answer 5

add selected attribute to the option
<select name="myvalue">
<option value=" ">--select--</option>
<?php
$selected = 'selected="selected" ';
foreach(array('male', 'female') as $v){
echo '<option '.(($v==$dbgender)? $selected : '').'value="'.$v.'">'.$v.'</option>';
}
?>
</select>
$dbgender is the value that stored for that user.

Answer 6

Do validation like this.
$val = value_from db;
if($val == "male") {
echo '<option value="male" selected="selected">male</option>';
} elseif($val == "female") {
echo '<option value="female" selected="selected">female</option>';
}