PHP HowTo - Dynamic Selects using a Function
Many sites have alot of different select fields in their forms. In order to streamline my coding efforts I have consolidated and am using a function to satisfy all my drop-down needs:
function MakeSelectList($strSQL, $strParameters, $blnShowBlank) { $arrData = GetArrayQuery($strSQL);?> <select <?= $strParameters ?>> <option value=""></option> <option value="<?= $arrData[$i][0] ?>"><?= $arrData[$i][1] ?></option> </select>The GetArrayQuerry() function is another streamlined function I use to return data as a data array from the database. This way I only deal with arrays and am removing my code from having to deal directly with the database:
function GetArrayQuery($strSQL) { $i = 0; $objRS = $db->query($strSQL); CheckError($objRS); while ($objRS->fetchInto($arrRow)) {$arrData[$i++] = $arrRow;}
return $arrData; }
Let me know if you have more elegant ways of doing this! I’m always open to new ideas. 