using doctrine's dbal in symfony2 with forms - php

Question

So I want to do the following:
I created a form class at /Form/Type/UserType.php
I have a table with a list of states (table named "states").
I want to show all of these states in a drop down menu.
What code should I use in the class UserType to show all the states?
I tried:
$request = new Request;
$conn = $request->get('database_connection');
$states = $conn->fetchAll('SELECT state_code, state_name FROM states');
$builder->add('state', 'choice', array(
'choices' => $states,
'required' => false,
));
but that gives me an error. Basically, I want to query all of the states from the table states, and create a drop down menu from all of these states.

Answer 1

You can create State entity, map it to states table and create a OneToMany relation with the User entity. Then in your UserType form $builder->add('state') should create dropdown field automatically. You also have to set data_class option to your User entity in getDefaultOptions method of UserType form.

Answer 2

#m2mdas has given you the correct object based answer. However, if all you really want to do is to store the state_code then what you have will almost work. You just need to get the connection right.
class MyType extends extends AbstractType
{
public function __construct($em) { $this->em = $em; }
public function buildForm(FormBuilder $builder, array $options)
{
$conn = $this->em->getConnection();
$statesx = $conn->fetchAll('SELECT state_code, state_name FROM states');
// Need to index for the choice
$states = array();
foreach($statesx as $state)
{
$states[$state['state_code']] = $state['state_name'];
}
$builder->add('state', 'choice', array(
'choices' => $states,
'required' => false,
));
...
// In your controller
$form = new MyType($this->getDoctrine()->getEntityManager());