PHP Form from Array Select Value Edit/Save - php

Question

I'm using an array to output a form for product entry.
$labels = array(
"category" => "Model",
"model_number" => "Model No.",
"description" => "Description");
The categories are populated as select/option set, which is easy when adding a new product. The issue comes when I need to edit the product. I would like to query the category table to return all the available categories to populate the select/option set. At the same time, I need to query the products table so that I can provide their saved Model Number and Description.
The following is my code from the add form to give you an idea of how I'm structuring this.
foreach($labels as $field => $label) {
if($field == "category") {
echo "<label>$label:</label>";
echo "<select name=\"$field\">";
while($row=mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
extract($row);
echo "<option value=\"$category\">$category</option>";
}
echo "</select>";
echo "<br />";
}
else {
echo "<label>$label:</label>";
echo "<input type=\"text\" name=\"$field\" />";
echo "<br />";
}
Thanks for the help. I'm sure it's simple, but my brain isn't quite providing me with the solution at the moment.

Answer 1

Having $labels array is a bad idea.
Get all your data first. Select your product data into array. Select your categories into array.
Show the form, as any other HTML you create with PHP
<label>Model:</label>
<select name="category">
<? foreach($cats as $category): ?>
<option<? if ($category == $row['category'])?> selected?>><?=$category?></option>
<? endforeach ?>
</select>
<br />
<label>Model No.:</label>
<input type="text" name="model_number" value="<?=$row['model_number']?>"/>
<br />
and so on
don't forget to htmlspecialchars() your values before placing them into value attribute

Answer 2

you can query the product table like this:
$sql = "SELECT * FROM products WHERE product_id = $product_id";
$q = mysql_query( $sql );
$row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $q );
$model_number = $row['model_number'];
$description = $row['description'];
$category = $row['category'];