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Bill Dowd
7,681 PointsHow to re-select a multi-select drop-down form field from a database.
I have a drop-down field for the days of the week. The value under each listed day of the week (1 = Monday, 2 = Tuesday, etc.). This/these values, 1 through 7, of the selected days, are stored in a DB table field. I am struggling with how to reselect the days when I need to edit the record. If they're not selecting, then when I update other fields in the record and save it, I'll lose the day selection unless I remember to reselect them and remember what those days were for that record.
Here is a portion of the code that doesn't work:
$form = "<select name='payment_days[] multiple'>\n";
$form .= "\t<option value='-'>---</option>\n";
$form .= "\t<option value='1' " . ($this->payment_days == '1' ? 'SELECTED' : '') . ">Monday</option>\n";
$form .= "\t<option value='2' " . ($this->payment_days == '2' ? 'SELECTED' : '') . ">Tuesday</option>\n";
$form .= "\t<option value='3' " . ($this->payment_days == '3' ? 'SELECTED' : '') . ">Wednesday</option>\n";
$form .= "\t<option value='4' " . ($this->payment_days == '4' ? 'SELECTED' : '') . ">Thursday</option>\n";
$form .= "\t<option value='5' " . ($this->payment_days == '5' ? 'SELECTED' : '') . ">Friday</option>\n";
$form .= "\t<option value='6' " . ($this->payment_days == '6' ? 'SELECTED' : '') . ">Saturday</option>\n";
$form .= "\t<option value='7' " . ($this->payment_days == '7' ? 'SELECTED' : '') . ">Sunday</option>\n";
$form .= "</select>\n";
return $form;
3 Answers
Bill Dowd
7,681 PointsI brain is hurting, but I figured out how to do it. This is the function in my class file that builds the form drop-down field.
public function GetPaymentDayChoices() {
$dayarray = explode(',', $this->payment_days);
$form = "<select name='payment_days[]' multiple size='5'>\n";
$form .= "\t<option value='-'>---</option>\n";
$dayselect = array();
// Create an array representing each day of the week with the value "Selected" for each match
for($i = 1 ; $i <= 7 ; $i++) {
foreach($dayarray as $value) {
if(count($dayselect) == $i) { // Check to see if that day of the week has been added
continue;
} elseif($value == $i) { // If there is a match from the DB then add
$dayselect[$i] = 'SELECTED';
}
}
if(count($dayselect) < $i) { // If there was no match from the DB after all the iterations, add a blank
$dayselect[$i] = '';
}
}
$form .= "\t<option value='1' " . $dayselect[1] . ">Monday</option>\n";
$form .= "\t<option value='2' " . $dayselect[2] . ">Tuesday</option>\n";
$form .= "\t<option value='3' " . $dayselect[3] . ">Wednesday</option>\n";
$form .= "\t<option value='4' " . $dayselect[4] . ">Thursday</option>\n";
$form .= "\t<option value='5' " . $dayselect[5] . ">Friday</option>\n";
$form .= "\t<option value='6' " . $dayselect[6] . ">Saturday</option>\n";
$form .= "\t<option value='7' " . $dayselect[7] . ">Sunday</option>\n";
$form .= "</select>\n";
return $form;
}
Tom Sager
18,987 PointsI am not sure that I understand your question - you only want to update certain fields in a DB record without changing the other fields? If so, this is handled by the database. For MySQL, it might look like this
$sql = "UPDATE table_name SET name_of_field_to_change='new value' WHERE id=3"
Any fields in record 3 that are not in the SET list are not changed.
Is this close to what you are trying to do?
Bill Dowd
7,681 PointsThanks Tom. Not exactly. I'm pulling up the complete record for a person so the user can edit any field they want to. So when the record is placed into a form, the fields need to be filled out with what was in the DB. The hard part is making sure drop-downs are preserved and the hardest one I've had to do is the days of the week multi-select, because it's a multi-select. Those selections need to show and be maintained when the user updates the record as most of the time they may only be changing one or two fields. I hope that helps you. I solved the problem, finally, below.
Tom Sager
18,987 PointsIt makes my head hurt too! I think you can simplify your logic if you use an associative array.
public function GetPaymentDayChoices() {
$daysofweek = array(
1 => "Monday",
2 => "Tuesday",
3 => "Wednesday",
4 => "Thursday",
5 => "Friday",
6 => "Saturday",
7 => "Sunday"
);
$form = "<select name='payment_days[]' multiple size='5'>\n";
$form .= "\t<option value='-'>---</option>\n";
$mydays = explode(',', $this->payment_days);
foreach ($daysofweek as $key => $day) {
$selected = array_key_exists($key, $mydays) ? "SELECTED" : "";
$form .= "\t<option value='" . $key . "' " . $selected . ">" . $day . "</option>\n";
}
return $form;
}
I don't have a PHP interpreter handy, so this code may not parse correctly. But it should give you an alternate approach. On each loop iteration, $selected is set either to the day, e.g. "Tuesday" or to a blank string.
Happy coding!
Bill Dowd
7,681 PointsI think you're on to something. I'll give this a try and see if I can make it work.
Thanks, Tom.
Bill Dowd
7,681 PointsIt doesn't work exactly right. It only highlighted the first two days and it should have highlighted days 1,3,5 as stored in the DB. However, still think you're on to something easier, so I'll play some with it to see if I can make it work.