Specify a default selected item for HTML form drop-downs - php

Question

Typically when you need to select an item by default, you do:
<select>
<option value="1"> Volvo </option>
<option value="2" selected="true"> Saab </option>
<option value="3"> Mercedes </option>
<option value="4"> Audi </option>
</select>
Is it possible to get something like this?
<select selectedValue="2">
<option value="1"> Volvo </option>
<option value="2"> Saab </option>
<option value="3"> Mercedes </option>
<option value="4"> Audi </option>
</select>
It works out easier in PHP since you only have to soft-code one value, instead of handling the selected attribute on any possible <option/>.

Answer 1

There is no attribute like that on the <select> element. Assuming your <option> output is in a loop, I don't see how it makes a huge difference:
$selected = "2";
foreach($values as $key => $val) {
echo "<option value=\"" . $key . "\"" . ($key == $selected ? " selected=\"selected\">" : ">") . $val . "</option>";
}
(my PHP is a little rusty, that may not be 100% correct)

Answer 2

No, but you can add your default value to your id like
<select id="default-value-2">
then in your options, you have
<option value="2" <?php echo is_this_the_default_value ? selected='true' : '' ?>
or something to that effect(forgive me i forgot my php syntax, but i hope you get the point).
Anyway, that is a dirty fix also, so i suggest just adding a method to check for the default selected tag and printing it selected="selected" when it is the default. You can just call it once if you loop through your select options

Answer 3

Put JavaScript after the declaration of the listbox and set the selected index there:
<script>
document.getElementById('listBoxId').selectedIndex=<?php echo $INDEX ?>;
</script>
Something like this.

Answer 4

You can do it like this:
$value = 1;
<select>
<?php if($value==1) echo "<option selected='true'> Volvo </option>";
else echo "<option> Volvo </option>"; ?>
<?php if($value==2) echo "<option selected='true'> Saab </option>";
else echo "<option> Saab </option>"; ?>
</select>

Answer 5

PHP:
<select>
<option value="1" <?php echo ($row['status']==1) ? 'selected' : '' ?>>Permitido</option>
<option value="2" <?php echo ($row['status']==2) ? 'selected' : '' ?>>Bloqueado</option>
</select>

Answer 6

I found myself googling this to see if there was a better way to do it.
The best and cleanest answer is from #roryf, however if you are not looping through your data I thought it would be a lot cleaner to wrap it up in a function:
function set_selected($desired_value, $new_value)
{
if($desired_value==$new_value)
{
echo ' selected="selected"';
}
}
Then you would use it like this:
<?php $selected_value = 2; ?>
<select>
<option value="1"<?php set_selected('1', $selected_value); ?>> Volvo </option>
<option value="2"<?php set_selected('2', $selected_value); ?>> Saab </option>
<option value="3"<?php set_selected('3', $selected_value); ?>> Mercedes </option>
<option value="4"<?php set_selected('4', $selected_value); ?>> Audi </option>
</select>
This would set Saab as selected :)

Answer 7

Preload $statusid from DB then -> (i have to escape ")
PHP:
$option_0 = '';
$option_11 = '';
$option_12 = '';
$option_13 = '';
$option_14 = '';
$option_15 = '';
$option_16 = '';
if ($statusid ==0 ){
$option_0 = 'selected=\"\"';
}elseif($statusid ==11 ){
$option_11 = 'selected=\"\"';
}elseif($statusid ==12 ){
$option_12 = 'selected=\"\"';
}elseif($statusid ==13 ){
$option_13 = 'selected=\"\"';
}elseif($statusid ==14 ){
$option_14 = 'selected=\"\"';
}elseif($statusid ==15 ){
$option_15 = 'selected=\"\"';
}elseif($statusid ==16 ){
$option_16 = 'selected=\"\"';
}
HTML:
."<select id=\"id\" name=\"name\" >"
." <option {$option_0} value=\"0\">...TEXT...</option>"
." <option {$option_11} value=\"11\">TEXT</option>"
." <option {$option_12} value=\"12\">TEXT</option>"
." <option {$option_13} value=\"13\">TEXT</option>"
." <option {$option_14} value=\"14\">TEXT</option>"
." <option {$option_15} value=\"15\">TEXT</option>"
." <option {$option_16} value=\"16\">TEXT</option>"
."</select><br /><br />"
work Perfect for me.