Managing Long Drop Down Lists

Long drop down lists

[naiquevin]

I want to allow users to select their Date of Birth using 3 drop down lists. Date/Month/ Year.
The Year list will be really long .. 1900 -2009 ..
So does it mean that I ll have to write the option tags 110 times!
Or is there a shortcut method available for this ?

Also, if I chose to keep these drop down lists in 3 separate files and include them in the form, will there be any problem in passing the variables using the post method ?

Thanks !

[rocknbil]

There is a shortcut - copy and paste. :-) But better yet, you reveal . . .

...and include them in the form, will there be any problem in passing the variables using the post method

... that you have some access to server-side programming. I'll guess at PHP. Short answer, sure you can do that, but then your lists are hard-coded. There's a better way; this is not "working code" but gives you the idea:

$year_start = '1900';
$year_end = '2009';
$ddName = 'birth'; // or convert from input variables
// What you REALLY should do is get the current year
// dynamically and use that for year end.

$moName = $ddName . '_month';
$daName = $ddName . '_day';
$yrName = $ddName . '_year';

// Do some stuff here to set the values for $mm, $dd,
// $yyyy so you can set "selected" if it's present

$dtString = " 
 <select name=\"$moName\" id=\"$moName\"> 
 <option value=\"\">--</option> 
"; 
for ($i=1;$i<=12;$i++) { 
 $moTxt = (strlen($i)<2)?'0' . $i:$i; 
 $dtString .= "<option value=\"$moTxt\""; 
 if ($mm == $moTxt) { $dtString .= ' selected'; } 
 $dtString .= ">$moTxt</option>\n"; 
} 
$dtString .= " 
 </select> 
"; 

//(rinse and repeat for DAY, using 1-31)

$dtString .= " 
<select name=\"$yrName\" id=\"$yrName\"> 
 <option value=\"\">--</option> 
"; 
for ($i=$start_year;$i<=$end_year;$i++) { 
 $dtString .= "<option value=\"$i\""; 
 if ($yyyy == $i) { $dtString .= ' selected'; } 
 $dtString .= ">$i</option>\n"; 
} 
$dtString .= " 
</select>\n"; 

Now output $dtString and you have your date selects . . . . apply the same concepts for a time list.

[dreamcatcher]

Another alternative would be a small javascript calendar that pops up when a form field is clicked. This eliminates 3 drop downs and makes things nice and tidy.

dc