<option value='A' <? if ($_POST== 'A')...

[abanana]

hi all,

i tried the whole last night in vain to google for a solution, what i want to do is to retain the value of SELECT BOX in the FORM. SELECT BOX is just a part of the form user need to submit. it should return all the values in the same form after validation(i use php for error-checking) and let the user fill the missing fields or correct the mistakes.

i remember some tutorail mentioned the method:

<option value='A' <? if ($_POST == 'A'){ echo "selected"; } ?>>A</option>

but i cant get it to work.

another problem is the TEXTAREA, cant retain the value either.

is there's a way using PHP?

[clamcrusher]

<select name="foo">
<option value="a"<?php if ($_POST['foo'] == 'a') echo ' selected'; ?>>a</option>
<option value="b"<?php if ($_POST['foo'] == 'b') echo ' selected'; ?>>b</option>

[Waffles]

// textarea

echo '<textarea name="name">'.$_POST['data'].'</textarea>';

// or

echo '<textarea name="name">'; 
if(isset($_POST['data'])) echo $_POST['data'];
echo '</textarea>'; 

[abanana]

thanks guy for your kind and quick reply, i'm going to try those code now, get back to you later!

[abanana]

sorry guys, but neither of them worked for me. any reason why?

thx very much.

[triexa]

I just do this:

function isSelected($val1, $val2 = 1) {
    return ($val1 == $val2) ? ' selected' : '';
}

echo '<option value="a"'.isSelected('a', $_POST['var']).'>A</option>';
echo '<option value="b"'.isSelected('b', $_POST['var']).'>B</option>';
echo '<option value="c"'.isSelected('c', $_POST['var']).'>C</option>';
echo '<option value="d"'.isSelected('d', $_POST['var']).'>D</option>'; 

[abanana]

thx triexa, but i'm not quite understand the code.
am i right to put it this way?

<select name="name">
<?php
function isSelected($val1, $val2 = 1) { 
    return ($val1 == $val2) ? ' selected' : ''; 
}
echo '<option></option>';
echo '<option value="a"' .isSelected('a', $_POST['name']).'>a</option>';
echo '<option value="b"' .isSelected('b', $_POST['name']).'>b</option>';
echo '<option value="c"' .isSelected('c', $_POST['name']).'>c</option>'; 
?>

</select>

[triexa]

umm yes, although not sure what is so different from what I gave you?

[abanana]

hi guys, i solved the problem now!

my form: <form name="name" method="post" action="process.php">

in the process.php, i got

$field = "category";
if(!$subcategory || strlen($subcategory = trim($subcategory)) == 0)
 { $form->setError($field, "* category not chosen"); }
  $category = $_POST['category']; 

and inside the form

<select name="category">
<option></option>
<option value="A"<?php if ($form->value("category") == "A") {echo "selected";} ?>>A</option>
......
</select>
<? echo  .$form->error("category"). ?>

my system is a bit more complicate than this, but this is how it works, hope this will help you guys, though i still needs to look into the TEXTAREA field.

thanks

[Waffles]

what are you trying to accomplish with the textarea? the code I gave you will echo out what was in the $_POST[] variable when you submit the form..I had assumed this is what you wanted by 'retaining' the value...a user types into the area, but misses out another field and so rather than have to retype out the text area, the code i provided keeps it in the box for the user.

[abanana]

sorry waffle,
didnt notice your mesg till now. what you said is exactly i want to do with the textarea. i just dont know why the code you gave me cant echo back the text, i did try very hard to make it work, it might because the other session settings in my whole code.

thx very much for your help anyway!