PHP pull down menu - any suggestions?

Ok, so imagine you have a user account, and the account holds the state you reside in.

Now you want to edit that user account online, so the PHP makes a database call and loads up all your user info.

How on earth can one make the state you are in "selected" from a pull down menu?

I really do NOT want to put an
[PHP][/PHP]
In every "option" tag in the list...seems too tedious.

I need to cheat because I am lazy, and lazy people rule!

If I indeed do need to put that damn "if" statement infront of every state in the list...I guess thats fine, but I'd rather not.

Well if you had the values for the option in an array, eg:

[php]
$option_array = array('ca','wa'); ...etc.
[/php]

You could just loop thru with an if statement.

[php]
$num = count($option_array);

for ($i=0;$i<$num$i++) {

if ( $option_array[$i] == $user_state ){
print '';
}else{
print '';
}
}
[/php]

$user_state would be the value coming from the db or textfile.

[php]

$state_array = array(
'Alabama', 'Alaska', 'Arizona',
'Arkansas', 'California', 'Colorado',
'Connecticut', 'Delaware', 'Florida',
'Georgia', 'Hawaii', 'Idaho',
'Illinois', 'Indiana', 'Iowa', 'Kansas',
'Kentucky', 'Louisiana', 'Maine',
'Maryland', 'Massachusetts', 'Michigan',
'Minnesota', 'Mississippi', 'Missouri',
'Montana', 'Nebraska', 'Nevada', 'New Hampshire',
'New Jersey', 'New Mexico', 'New York',
'North Carolina', 'North Dakota', 'Ohio',
'Oklahoma', 'Oregon', 'Pennsylvania',
'Rhode Island', 'South Carolina', 'South Dakota',
'Tennessee', 'Texas', 'Utah', 'Vermont',
'Virginia', 'Washington', 'West Virginia',
'Wisconsin', 'Wyoming'
);

$num = count($state_array);

echo 'Select State';

for( $i=0; $i<$num; $i++) {

if ( $state_array[$i] == $state ){
echo '' . $state_array[$i] . '';
}else{
echo '' . $state_array[$i] . '';
} }
echo '';

[/php]


Wow...great call. Thanks a lot!

The above codes works well for me, so anyone who has the same issue....feel free to use it!

Thanks a lot.