What is the purpose of the dynamic dropdown menu in the PHP code provided?

The purpose of the dynamic dropdown menu in the PHP code is to populate a dropdown menu with options retrieved from a database. This allows for a more user-friendly interface where users can select options from a list rather than manually inputting them.

<?php
// Connect to the database
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "database";

$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}

// Query to retrieve options from database
$sql = "SELECT option_name FROM options_table";
$result = $conn->query($sql);

// Create dropdown menu with options
echo "<select name='options'>";
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
    echo "<option value='" . $row['option_name'] . "'>" . $row['option_name'] . "</option>";
}
echo "</select>";

// Close database connection
$conn->close();
?>