Using <select> on an update form - php

Question

I have an edit form with two fields: name and category. The category field is stored in the database as a number. I would like to associate each number (3 in total) to a string in the edit form and display the category recorded in the database and then the other.
<form>
<input type="text" name="name" value="<?php echo $result->name; ?>">
<select name="categoria">
<option value="<?php echo $result->category; ?>">books</option>
<option value="2">cds</option>
<option value="3">dvds</option>
</select>
</form>

Answer 1

I'm not sure if there was a question there, but I think I know what you're trying to do. I don't know what your table structure is like, so this is just an example.
$sql = mysqli_query("SELECT * FROM categories ORDER BY category_title ASC");
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($sql))
{
$num = $row['category_number'];
$val = $row['category_title'];
echo '<option value="' . $num . '">' . $val . '</option>';
}
That will give you all of the options for your select element, set their value to the number from the database, and display the name of the category for the viewer.
EDIT:
Here's using the MySQLi class, which will save you some time. However, there's not much use in building a class for this particular function. It's so short.
$mysqli = new MySQLi($host, $user, $pass, $database);
$sql = $mysqli->query("SELECT * FROM products ORDER BY category_name ASC");
while($row = $sql->fetch_array())
{
$num = $row['category'];
$val = $row['category_title'];
echo '<option value="' . $num . '">' . $val . '</option>';
}
EDIT 2:
Just use the while() loop, rather than do...while(). It'd go like this:
$dbh = new PDO("mysql:host=" . DB_HOST . ";dbname=" . DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASS);
$sth = $dbh->query("SELECT * FROM products ORDER BY category_name ASC");
while($row = $sth->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC))
{
$num = $row['category'];
$val = $row['categoty_name'];
echo '<option value="' . $num . '">' . $val . '</option>';
}