How do I remove empty space combo box

Question

My promblem is that I have empty space between selected option and the other option Below are code i used to build this combo box .This combo box display list of possible user of the system and selected option show to the currrent user of the system. Code are
<%      sql_query = "SELECT em_num, em_name, dfu_usr_id "+
                                        "  FROM dfusrf, emmast "+
                                        " WHERE dfu_emp_id = em_num "+
                                        " ORDER BY em_name ";
                           try{
                                  rset = db.execSQL(sql_query);
      while ( rset.next()){
           String em_num2 = rset.getString("em_num");
          String em_nme2 = rset.getString("em_name");
                              %>
     <option value="<%= em_num2 %>">
     <% if ( em_num2.equals(em_num) ){%>
     <option value="<%= em_num2 %>"selected>
                      <%=  em_nme2 %></option>
     <%} // end if
     %><%= em_nme2 %></option>
    <%} // end while
  } // end try
  catch ( Exception e )
    System.err.println("Error in query -  emmast2 - transaction_main.jsp " +e.getMessage() + " sql " + sql_query);
  finally
    if ( rset != null ) rset.close();
%>
</select>

Answer 1

while ( rset.next())
     String SELECTED = "";
     String em_num2 = rset.getString("em_num");
     String em_nme2 = rset.getString("em_name");
     if ( em_num2.equals(em_nme2) )
          SELECTED = " SELECTED ";
%>
     <option <%=SELECTED%> value="<%= em_num2 %>"><%=  em_nme2 %></option>
<%
} // end while