Keep values selected after form submission

Question

<form method="get" action="">
   <select name="name">
      <option value="a">a</option>
      <option value="b">b</option>
   </select>
   <select name="location">
      <option value="x">x</option>
      <option value="y">y</option>
   </select>
   <input type="submit" value="Submit" class="submit" />
</form>

On submitting the form, how do I make sure that the selected values remain selected in the dropdowns? This form is inside wordpress (PHP).

Answer 1

<select name="name">
   <option <?php if ($_GET['name'] == 'a') { ?>selected="true" <?php }; ?>value="a">a</option>
   <option <?php if ($_GET['name'] == 'b') { ?>selected="true" <?php }; ?>value="b">b</option>
</select>

Answer 2

After trying al this "solves" nothing work. Did some research on w3school before and remember there was explanation of keeping values about radio. But it also works for Select option. See here an example. Just try it out and play with it.

<?php
$example = $_POST["example"];
?>
<form method="post">        
<select name="example">
    <option <?php if (isset($example) && $example=="a") echo "selected";?>>a</option>
    <option <?php if (isset($example) && $example=="b") echo "selected";?>>b</option>
    <option <?php if (isset($example) && $example=="c") echo "selected";?>>c</option>
</select>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit" />
</form>

Answer 3

If you are using Wordpress (as is the case with the OP), you can use the selected function.

<form method="get" action="">
  <select name="name">
   <option value="a" <?php selected( isset($_POST['name']) ? $_POST['name'] : '', 'a' ); ?>>a</option>
   <option value="b" <?php selected( isset($_POST['name']) ? $_POST['name'] : '', 'b' ); ?>>b</option>
 </select>
 <select name="location">
   <option value="x" <?php selected( isset($_POST['location']) ? $_POST['location'] : '', 'x' ); ?>>x</option>
   <option value="y" <?php selected( isset($_POST['location']) ? $_POST['location'] : '', 'y' ); ?>>y</option>
 </select>
 <input type="submit" value="Submit" class="submit" />
</form>

Answer 4

I don't work in WP much but for forms outside of Wordpress, this works well.

PHP

location = "";                                   // declare variable

if($_POST) {
    if(!$_POST["location"]) {
        $error .= "Location is required.<br />"; // If not selected, add string to error message
     }else{
        $location = $_POST["location"];          // If selected, assign to variable
     }

HTML

<select name="location">
    <option value="0">Choose...</option>
    <option value="1" <?php if (isset($location) && $location == "1") echo "selected" ?>>location 1</option>
    <option value="2" <?php if (isset($location) && $location == "2") echo "selected" ?>>location 2</option>
</select>

Answer 5

This works for me!

<label for="reason">Reason:</label>
<select name="reason" size="1" id="name" >
    <option value="NG" selected="SELECTED"><?php if (!(strcmp("NG", $_POST["reason"]))) {echo "selected=\"selected\"";} ?>Selection a reason below</option>
    <option value="General"<?php if (!(strcmp("General", $_POST["reason"]))) {echo "selected=\"selected\"";} ?>>General Question</option>
    <option value="Account"<?php if (!(strcmp("Account", $_POST["reason"]))) {echo "selected=\"selected\"";} ?>>Account Question</option>
    <option value="Other"<?php if (!(strcmp("Other", $_POST["reason"]))) {echo "selected=\"selected\"";} ?>>Other</option>

</select>

Answer 6

Try this solution for keep selected value in dropdown:

<form action="<?php echo get_page_link(); ?>" method="post">
    <select name="<?php echo $field_key['key']; ?>" onchange="javascript: 
       submit()">
    <option value="">All Category</option>
    <?php 
    foreach( $field['choices'] as $key => $value ){ 
       if($post_key==$key){ ?>
          <option value="<?php echo $key; ?>" selected><?php echo $value; ?></option>
<?php
   }else{?>
  <option value="<?php echo $key; ?>"><?php echo $value; ?></option>
 <?php }
  }?>
 </select>
</form>