Give a dropdown a default value with php - php

Question

i would like to give a dropdown a default value with php / mysql queries
like in the db table users there is a record saying usergroup
and i want it so the dropdown default value changes to the value of that record i got this code so far:
Usergroup: <select value=\"" . $usergroup . "\" name='usergroup'>
<option value='4'>Administrator</option>
<option value='3'>Moderator</option>
<option value='2'>Donator</option>
<option value='1'>Regular Member</option>
</select>
and php part:
$username = mysql_real_escape_string(htmlentities(stripslashes($_POST['username'])));
$query="SELECT * FROM users where `username` like '{$username}'";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$num = mysql_numrows($result);
$i=0;
while ($i < $num) {
$username2=mysql_result($result,$i,"username");
$name=mysql_result($result,$i,"name");
$usergroup=mysql_result($result,$i,"usergroup");
$email=mysql_result($result,$i,"email");
$ip=mysql_result($result,$i,"ip");
$profpic=mysql_result($result,$i,"profilepic");
$id=mysql_result($result,$i,"id");
$i++;
}
thanks in regards!
i gotten it to work with a few if statements, i was planning to use it that way but didn't want the code to become too messy:
if ($usergroup == 4) {
echo "<select name='usergroup'><option value='4' selected='selected'>Administrator</option><option value='3'>Moderator</option><option value='2'>Donator</option><option value='1'>Regulat Member</option></select><br>";
}
if ($usergroup == 3) {
echo "<select name='usergroup'><option value='4'>Administrator</option><option value='3' selected='selected'>Moderator</option><option value='2'>Donator</option><option value='1'>Regulat Member</option></select><br>";
}
if ($usergroup == 2) {
echo "<select name='usergroup'><option value='4'>Administrator</option><option value='3'>Moderator</option><option value='2' selected='selected'>Donator</option><option value='1'>Regulat Member</option></select><br>";
}
if ($usergroup == 1) {
echo "<select name='usergroup'><option value='4'>Administrator</option><option value='3'>Moderator</option><option value='2'>Donator</option><option value='1' selected='selected'>Regulat Member</option></select><br>";
}

Answer 1

This is probably what you are looking for:
<?php
// $userGroup = the value from the database
$userGroup = 4;
?>
<select>
<option <?php echo ($userGroup) == 1 ? "selected" : "" ?> value="1">Administrator</option>
<option <?php echo ($userGroup) == 2 ? "selected" : "" ?> value="2">Moderator</option>
<option <?php echo ($userGroup) == 3 ? "selected" : "" ?> value="3">Donator</option>
<option <?php echo ($userGroup) == 4 ? "selected" : "" ?> value="4">Regular member</option>
</select>
If you don't recognize the if/else syntax (shorthand), check out this guide. Really handy for situations like this.