Access Database - Drop Down Menu

TheBigLebowski

Just about to start pulling my hair out here. I need this done for college tomorrow. All I want is a drop down menu that lists the contents of a column in an MS Access table. Pretty straight forward, no? This is what I have so far. I have a table called employee and 2 columns named id_no and name:

<?php
$connection = odbc_connect('company_db','', '') or die('Could not Connect to ODBC Database!');
$sql= 'SELECT * FROM employee';
$results = odbc_exec($connection, $sql);
while (odbc_fetch_row($results))
{
$id=$results["id_no"];
$name=$results["name"];
print"<option value='$id'>$name</option>"; }
?>
<select name="name">
<option value=0>Choose
<?=$name?>
</select>

Any ideas?

aidan_walsh

And what, pray tell, is the problem you're having?

TheBigLebowski

An empty drop down menu, that only says "choose"...

irlrobins

Wild stab here but is it because the "print"<option value='$id'>$name</option>";" is occurring before the <select> tag and not within it?

Adam

Yep, that's it! Here's how it should be:

[php]

<?php
$connection = odbc_connect('company_db','', '') or die('Could not Connect to ODBC Database!');
$sql= 'SELECT * FROM employee';
$results = odbc_exec($connection, $sql);
?>

<select name="name">
<option value=0>Choose</option>

<?
while (odbc_fetch_row($results))
{
$id=$results["id_no"];
$name=$results["name"];
echo '<option value='.$id.'>'.$name.'</option>';
}
?>

</select>

[/php]

TheBigLebowski

Thanks for the replies. Good stuff. I know I'm pretty close now because the number of options in my drop down menu matches the number of employees on the database so my while loop is working but the part where it puts the values into the options isn't. Unfortunately the options are blank. Any idea where I'm going wrong.

louie

show us what you have.
Also make sure the $id name coming from the database is "id_no" or whatever value you have in the code, like:
[php]
<?
while (odbc_fetch_row($results))
{
$id=$results["id_no"];//this line here make sure the id_no is the name of the id field in the database
$name=$results["name"];
echo '<option value="'.$id.'">'.$name.'</option>';
}
?>

[/php]

TheBigLebowski

Thanks for the help. I asked my lecturer and I was going wrong with the lines:

$id=$results["id_no"];
$name=$results["name"];

It should be:

$name = odbc_result($results, 'name');
$id = odbc_result($results, 'id_no');


Pretty simple but enough to drive me to the edge of my sanity...