HTML define what selection option is active - php

Question

I have a select box with the following (it has been shortened):
<select id="viewSelector" name="when" style="width:92%;">
<option value="USA">USA</option>
<option value="Australia">Australia</option>
<option value="Germany">Germany</option>
</select>
If the user logs into the control panel and wants to change his country, he gets presented with this form. My problem is that everytime USA is the default and I can not change this depending on the users country. For example, the user lives in Australia. He wants to change his country to USA and goes to this page. I want the country that is displayed to be Australia. Let me know if this makes sense.

Answer 1

To preselect a value, just add the selected attribute to the desired option.
<select id="viewSelector" name="when" style="width:92%;">
<option value="USA">USA</option>
<option value="Australia" selected="selected">Australia</option>
<option value="Germany">Germany</option>
</select>
This will preselect Australia for example.

Answer 2

You need to add a selected attribute to the option you want to select, as described in the spec.
<select id="viewSelector" name="when"">
<option value="USA">USA</option>
<option value="Australia" selected="selected">Australia</option>
<option value="Germany">Germany</option>
</select>
In your script, you need to emit this attribute for whatever default you want to display.

Answer 3

Use the selected attribute of the option tag.
<select id="viewSelector" name="when" style="width:92%;">
<option value="USA">USA</option>
<option value="Australia">Australia</option>
<option selected value="Germany">Germany</option>
</select>

Answer 4

Use selected on the <option> tag that names the user's current country:
<option value="Australia" selected="selected">Australia</option>
So in PHP:
<select>
<?php
$countries = array('USA', 'Australia', 'Germany');
$current_country = 'Australia';
foreach($countries as $country) {
if($country == $current_country) {
echo '<option selected="selected">'.$country.'</option>';
} else {
echo '<option>'.$country.'</option>';
}
}
?>
</select>

Answer 5

The html looks like:
<option selected value="Australia">Australia</option>
In the php loop that builds this html, compare the current option name with the user's current country (retrieved from a database or where-ever). When the two match, add selected

Answer 6

A bit shorter:
foreach($paises as $key=>$value)
{
if($key == "PE"){$activo = ' selected="selected" '; }else{$activo = "";}
echo "<option $activo value=\"$key\">$value</option>";
}