PHP generated menu question

[Philth]

Hi there,

I've got a a form that includes several drop downs which are generated from rows within a database, which works fine thanks to the very helpful folks on this forum.

Some of these drops downs are not compulsory and I would like them to be left blank if not needed - or with a default "please select...".

Is this possible with the following code

		<?
include("connect.php"); 
$query="SELECT categoryName FROM category";

$result = mysql_query ($query);
echo "<select name='eventCategory2'></option>";

while($nt=mysql_fetch_array($result)){
echo "<option value='$nt[categoryName]'>'$nt[categoryName]'</option>";

}
echo "</select>";
?>

Secondly, if that person doesn't select anything I don't want anything added to the database. I suspect that even if the user doesn't select an option, then a blank row, or a row containing the phrase "please select" will be entered. Is there a way around this?

Many thanks. I hope it makes sense.

[Dormilich]

you can add a default option right after the <select> (once you correct the typo there) but outside the loop.

Secondly, if that person doesn't select anything I don't want anything added to the database. I suspect that even if the user doesn't select an option, then a blank row, or a row containing the phrase "please select" will be entered. Is there a way around this?

you can check against the default value* (0 is quite a good choice), if that is the case, abort the insert.

* if you use Filter functions, you can make those default values return false/NULL if you provide the ‘wrong’ input type

[Philth]

Hi Dormilich,

So putting something like this when processing the form would create a null entry when "0" is returned? Or is there more to it?

filter_var('eventCategory2', FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN));

[Dormilich]

So putting something like this when processing the form would create a null entry when "0" is returned?

no, it would return false (or NULL if you set the FILTER_NULL_ON_ FAILURE flag)

Or is there more to it?

sure, there are the boolean-like values 0, 1, on, off, true, false, yes & no. see also here