Having multiple values within an tag?

Question

I am trying to create a dropdown box where it has from 10 - 90, I want each value to stand for the numbers in between (so 10 will hold 11, 12, 13, 14.. and so on and so forth).

Answer 1

I am assuming you are retrieving this integers from the PHP source code. In that case, just store this logic somewhere in your database, php file or some sort of a config file in order to keep this logic server-sided. It is not possible to store multiple values in one option, that's the idea of an option. Or you would have to store it as a json_encode string, but I am not sure if that is what you want.

It would safer as well to put this on your server-side, I am not sure what you are creating, but safety is always a pre.

More about json encoding

Answer 2

Simple answer: you cannot store multiple values in one option tag value.

The simplest and safest solution would be to store one value in the option value (e.g. 10) and then treat this as a range from the value set to the next multiple of 10:

'AND col >= '.$value.' AND col < '.$value+10

A second solution would be to set the value to be a range like 10-19 and then on the server side:

list($min,$max) = explode('-',$value);
... 'AND col >= '.$min.' AND col <= '.$max ...

Another solution would be to store a JSON encoding of an array containing the values you wish to encapsulate in the one option and then decode the value on the server side:

'AND col IN ('.implode(',',json_decode($value)).')'

I personally would avoid the JSON approach as it is overkill for this kind of problem.

Answer 3

The value of an <option> can be any string; it's up to your server-side code to interpret that string appropriately.

Rather than always using the string-match operator LIKE in your SQL, you need to choose appropriate conditions for each of your columns.

For instance, set your value to be a range specified by min and max: <option value="11-20">foo</option> and then use <= and >= in your SQL (beware of "fence-post errors"!)

list($min,$max) = explode('-', $_POST['trayheight']);
$sql .= 'And trayheight >= ' . intval($min) . ' And trayheight <= ' . intval($max);