php mysql echo | How to inherit colors from a subm

I'm having some real trouble finding information on this topic and I would be very appreciative for any help. In short I have a form where users select a category from a drop down list, enter some contents, and hit submit which goes to SQL. Each category in the dropdown is color coded:

<option STYLE="color: #00CC66;" value="Option_1">Option_1</option>
<option STYLE="color: #0066CC;" value="Option_2">Option_2</option>
<option STYLE="color: #996633;" value="Option_3">Option_3</option>

etc

Then I have a php that pulls up the stored submitted data (categories and contents) into a table on that same page sorted by date.

<?php
$con=mysqli_connect("localhost","myuser","mypassword","mydb");
// Check connection
if (mysqli_connect_errno())
  {
  echo "Failed to connect to MySQL: " . mysqli_connect_error();
  }

$result = mysqli_query($con,"SELECT * FROM mytable order by date DESC");

echo "<table border='1'>
<tr>
<th>Category</th>
<th>Contents</th>
<th>Date/Time</th>
</tr>";

while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result))
  {
  echo "<tr>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['category'] . "</td>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['contents'] . "</td>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['date'] . "</td>";
  echo "</tr>";
  }
echo "</table>";

mysqli_close($con);
?>

My question is, when echo places the information in the table, is there a way I can get 'category' showing up in the same colors as the user form? (IE, on the table, Option_1 would show up as #00CC66, Option 2 as 0066CC, etc...)

Basically I want the actual category text on the fetched table to display the same as it is in the drop down form. I don't mind if I need to manually set each one as the categories are limited, I just have no clue where to begin on this one. Appreciate any help in advance!

Yes, but you would need to either change the value of the select box to the colour or manually do it like this:

function getColor($strOption)
{
   switch ($strOption)
   {
       case "Option_1":
       return "#00CC66";

       case "Option_2":
       return "#0066CC";
       #etc
    }
}

Then in your while loop:

while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result))
  {
  echo "<tr>";
  echo "<td><font color='".getColor($row['category'])."'> " . $row['category'] . "</font></td>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['contents'] . "</td>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['date'] . "</td>";
  echo "</tr>";
  }