How to select a <select> statement from database? - php

Question

I wasnt quite sure how to word the question correctly - but this is merely just out of interest really. Constantly I am having to load information from a database and pre-populate a form with the values. So in the case of the textbox, its easy, i simply set the value:
<input type="text" value="<?=$foo;?>" name="foobar">
However when I come to select boxes I find my code gets quite sloppy, as I need to place a selected value in the line somewhere. So really I have two options, both of which I dislike:
$one = $two = "";
switch ($myval) {
case "1": $one = " selected";
case "2": $two = " selected";
}
and then in the HTML:
<select name="myval">
<option value="1"<?=$one;?>>One</option>
<option value="1"<?=$two;?>>Two</option>
</select>
Or the other option is to place a shorthand if statement in the middle of the select:
<select name="myval">
<option value="1"<?=($myval=="1") ? " selected" : "";?>>One</option>
<option value="1"<?=($myval=="2") ? " selected" : "";?>>Two</option>
</select>
Which looks slightly cleaner, however it still bugs me.
Anyone got any much more efficent ways of doing this? its even more annyoing when It is just a Yes/No drop downbox and I have to write stupid if statements for each value.
The same question applies to checkboxes as well.

Answer 1

Create an array with the data you want in the output. Loop over it. Generate an option element for each item in it.

Answer 2

As an addition to Quentin (just some code to help you out), I tend to use arrays as well, like this:
<select name="myval">
<?php
$options = array(
"1" => "One",
"2" => "Two"
);
foreach ($options as $value => $text) {
echo '<option value="' . $value . '"' . ($myval == $value ? ' selected' : '') . '>' . $text . '</option>';
}
?>
</select>

Answer 3

Well the easiest way for such repetitive outputs is to write yourself a function, for example:
function selectbox(array $options, $name, $value = null) {
$out = '<select name="' . $name . '">';
foreach($options as $key => $text) {
$out .= '<option value="' . $key. '"' . ($key == $value ? ' selected="selected"' : null) . '>' . $text . '</option>';
}
return $out . '</select>';
}

Answer 4

There are really many ways for a cleaner code. Find one or invent your own :)
For select statements, I like to use utility methods. E.g.:
<?= HTML::createSelect($name, $actualvalue, $optionslist, $passthrough) ?>
Something on that line. Read the optionslist and the actualvalue from the DB. Passthrough is for adding HTML decorators, e.g. id, class, etc.