How to Pre-select Value in auto drop down list

Question

Hi,
I have an automatically populated drop down list, and I'm trying to have it display with a pre-selected value (in the example 5). I didn't know where to start, so I modified the Dreamweaver code for "Set value equal to" from the Dynamic list function.The list displays, but the value defaults to 0. What am I missing?
<?php
echo '<select name="firstnumber" id="number">';
for ($j=0; $j<11; $j+=1)
echo  "<option value=\"$j\" <?php if (!(strcmp(\"$j\",5))) {echo \"selected=\"selected\"\";} ?>$j</option>\n";
echo '</select>';
?>
Thanks,
Tim

Answer 1

The problem is that you have nested PHP tags inside a PHP block. You can't do that. In fact, it's surprising that the code works at all. Normally, nesting PHP tags inside a PHP code block will trigger a syntax error.
Also, your code is very difficult to read because of the way you use double quotes all the time. It's best to use single quotes for strings, except when you need to display the value of a variable inside a string. You can also nest double quotes inside a single-quoted string and vice versa, making for code that's much easier to read without all the backslashes.
This is how I have rewritten your code:
<select name="firstnumber" id="number">
<?php
for ($j=0; $j<11; $j+=1) {
  echo  "<option value='$j'";
  if (!(strcmp($j,5))) {
     echo 'selected="selected"';
  echo ">$j</option>\n";
?>
</select>