Update drop down from SQL database using PHP - php

Question

I know this should be simple but I just can't seem to get my head around it.
I have a list of continents in a sql database that I get back using PHP DBO and display in a drop down list. What I then want to do is get the users preferred continent from the sql database and select that one in the list. E.g if the list contains World, Africa, Europe, N America and S America but the users favorite is 'Europe' I want that one selected. $getContinent is the users preference.
while ($row = $continent_results->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {
if ($getContinent != ''){
echo '<option value="' . $getContinent . '" selected="selected" >' . $row['CONTINENT_NAME'] . '</option>';
}else{
echo '<option value=' . $row['CONTINENT_ID'] . '>' . $row['CONTINENT_NAME'] . '</option>';
}
}
I would be most grateful if someone could set me straight as I have found some examples on the internet but have been unable to get them to work :)

Answer 1

Your code should be like this
while ($row = $continent_results->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {
//just check if the option id is equal to the chosen value
if ($getContinent != '' && $getContinent==$row['CONTINENT_ID'] ){
echo '<option value="' . $getContinent . '" selected="selected" >' . $row['CONTINENT_NAME'] . '</option>';
}else{
echo '<option value=' . $row['CONTINENT_ID'] . '>' . $row['CONTINENT_NAME'] . '</option>';
}
}
Its simple, as you guessed :D

Answer 2

You would use something like this:
while ($row = $continent_results->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {
echo '<option value="' . $row['CONTINENT_ID'] . '">' . $row['CONTINENT_NAME'] . '</option>';
}
I hope that helps!
--al

Answer 3

You can use ternary operator
while ($row = $continent_results->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {
echo '<option value="' . $row['CONTINENT_ID'] .
($getContinent == $row['CONTINENT_NAME']) ? '" selected="selected"' : '"' . '>' .
$row['CONTINENT_NAME'] . '</option>';
}