help auto selecting a default value on drop down

[PushCode]

My form submits to the same page. Once the form is submitted and the page reloads, I want the value selected in the drop-down list, before the form was submitted, to be automatically selected.

Here's how I'm trying it, but it's not working. BTW, the drop down is being dynamically populated from a db...that part does work.

strSQL = "SELECT specialty "
strSQL = strSQL & "FROM [Provider 2006] group by specialty"
oRs.Open strSQL, oConn, adOpenStatic, adLockReadOnly

WHILE NOT oRs.EOF 
	IF oRs("specialty") = sSpecialty THEN
	    prioritytypes = prioritytypes & "<option selected value=" & sSpecialty & ">" & sSpecialty & "</option>"
	ELSE
	    prioritytypes = prioritytypes & "<option value=" & oRs("specialty") & ">" & oRs("specialty") & "</option>"
	END IF
	oRs.MoveNext
WEND

oRs.Close
oConn.Close

...and in the form, I have: <select size="1" name="Specialty"><%=prioritytypes%></select>

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Sheco]

It looks good except up above this code you need something to set the value of your variable [tt]sSpecialty[/tt]

Something like this:[tt]
sSpecialty = Request("Specialty")[/tt]


Also, if there is any change that the field in your database could possibly be null, it is best to make your [tt]IF/THEN[/tt] like this:[tt]
IF oRs("specialty")[red] & ""[/red] = sSpecialty THEN
[/tt]

By concatinating the value with an empty string, you ensure that any Null value is converted to a string value. This helps you avoid the troublesome "Invalid use of Null" errors that pop up occasionally when working with recordset values.

 

[PushCode]

Sheco,

I'm actually already setting the value of the variable, I just didn't included that in my code post. It looks like this: sSpecialty = Request.QueryString("Specialty")

I added your empty string suggestion to. I'm still not getting it to auto-select the previously selected value. It just goes back to the first value in the list, which happens to be blank.

Here's the live page I'm talking about:

http://www.advantageplan.com/medicare/provdata/provDir.asp

Any other suggestions?

 

[PushCode]

Nevermind, I figured it out. The problem was that I wasn't surrounding the input value with quotes. Unfortunately for this situation, the input values aren't id numbers, they are text just like the displayed values.

It's working now.

Thanks!