How can PHP developers optimize the preselection of values in a dropdown menu filled via SQL to ensure a smoother user experience?

When populating a dropdown menu with values retrieved from a SQL database, PHP developers can optimize the preselection of values by querying the database for the selected value and setting it as the default option in the dropdown menu. This ensures that the user sees their previously selected value when the page loads, providing a smoother user experience. 

// Assume $selectedValue contains the value previously selected by the user

// Query the database to retrieve all options for the dropdown menu
$options = mysqli_query($conn, "SELECT id, name FROM dropdown_options");

echo '<select name="dropdown">';
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($options)) {
    $selected = ($row['id'] == $selectedValue) ? 'selected' : '';
    echo '<option value="' . $row['id'] . '" ' . $selected . '>' . $row['name'] . '</option>';
}
echo '</select>';

Keywords

PHP SQL dropdown menu optimization user experience

Related Questions