Setting dynamic default values in a list/menu

Question

To save problems with inserting dates into a Mysql database, I have split the input fields on the file insert form into three drop down lists containing the day, month and year.
In order to make it easy for users, I wish to take the current date, split it into day (dd) month (mm) and year (yyyy), and use one of these values as the default option for each of the three fields.
In html you would use :
<option value="2012" selected>2012</option> for the default, but this is a fixed default.
I want it to change depending on the actual year., so that if today is 21-02-2012, (thats how we use dates in the UK)  the three fields default to 21 (dd) 02 (mm)  2012 (yyyy).
I can re-format them into MySql date format mmddyyyy no problem later to insert them into the database
Any ideas?
Or is there a better way to do this?

Answer 1

<option value="2012" <?php if (date('Y') == '2012') echo 'selected'; ?>>2012</option>
The above solution works well for that item.
I now have another one which may help others.
I populate a drop down list with the values 1 to 12, with the default being set to 6 and insert a record.
This represents the number of months that the record will be displayed until it is deleted.
When I pull the record back from the database to update it, I need to show the current value of the field, which is stored in $row_eventset['event_expiry'] ready for it to be updated.
Code as follows:
<select name="event_expiry" size="1" tabindex="5" title="select from the list">
<?php for ($i = 1; $i <= 12; $i++) { // loop through the months
          echo "<option value= '$i' " ;
      if ($i == $row_eventset['event_expiry']) {                               //check if this is the same as the record being edited
       echo 'selected="selected" ' ;                                                 // if so select it
            echo ">$i</option <br>";                                                  // the <br> is essential in a browser, though it works without it in live view.
?>
</select>
I hope that it saves someone some time.
When I first tried this, it worked fine in live view. However in a browser, all the months appeared on the same line. I had to insert the <br> command to make it work properly.