On Monday, July 1, 2002, at 04:22 PM, Mike Tuller wrote:
> Thanks. Here is what I did for future reference.
Good. What you chose to do is exactly what I do except for one
thing... :
> $sql = "select department_name from Departments";
I generally grab the primary key column value as well, in the same
query, and then I use that as the "value" attribute for the <option>
tags:
> while($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql_result))
> {
> $department = $row["department_name"];
> echo "<option value = '$department'>$department</option>";
>
> }
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
$dept_id = $row['department_id'];
$dept_name = $row['department_name'];
echo "<option value='$dept_id'>$department_name</option>\n";
}
The reason I do this is because I end up using the ID far more than the
"name" of a database record -- while I might echo the "name" to the user
where needed (such as in the above dropdown listbox), the ID comes in
handy as a reference in hyperlinks, form fields, etc -- it provides
something that I've discovered is really missing in writing HTML-based
applications: a unique handle on an object. This is very hard to
replicate given the statelessness of HTTP, but with a database record's
primary key, you always have this unique identifier by which to refer to
the object. and a number is more pithy than a name.
It'll avoid situations where someone enters the same "name" value twice,
too. But it's not really a big deal unless you're doing a lot of work
with a lot of data.
Erik
----
Erik Price
Web Developer Temp
Media Lab, H.H. Brown
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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