Auto Populate Dropdown List (current year)

[adammc]

Hi guys,

How would I automate this script below so that I dont have to modify it each year (example; when the year reaches 2008)

[PHP]<?

// Make the years array.
$years = range (2007, 1930);

// Make the years pull-down menu.
foreach ($years as $value) {
echo "<option value=\"$value\">$value</option>\n";
}
echo '</select>';

?>[/PHP]

Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

[adammc]

Will this do the trick ?

$currentYear = date("Y");

// Make the years array.
$years = range ($currentYear, 1930);

[coopster]

Did you test it?

;) Yes, that is a great approach. Nice work.

[adammc]

Thanx coopster!

No I hadn't cause I wasnt sure how to test if its 2008 ;)

[dreamcatcher]

Or you could do it like this adammc:

for ($i=date("Y"); $i>1929; $i--)
{
echo "<option>$i</option>\n";
}

dc

[adammc]

HI Dreamcatcher :)

$i>1929; $i--)
If its not asking too much, can you please explain the code above?

[dreamcatcher]

Sure thing adammc. :)

Ok, lets take a standard for loop. I assume you are familiar with for loops? If not..

for ($i=0; $i<5; $i++)
{
echo $i;
}

This sets the start count at 0 and increments $i until 4 is reached, then the for loop stops execution. The ++ is incrementing the count. $i is stating that the loop will run unless $i is less than 5. So, this loop runs from 0 - 4. Hope thats ok so far.

Now lets look at the code I posted:

for ($i=date("Y"); $i>1929; $i--)
{
echo "<option>$i</option>\n";
}

A little different this time. We set the initial count to date("Y") which will always be the current year. $-- increments the count backwards. So, in this instance we are incrementing $i backwards from the current year until 1930.

Did that make any sense at all?

dc

[coopster]

Maybe it's just the old perl hacker in me, but you could actually get it all in one line without a loop ;)

print '<option>' . implode [php.net]("</option>\n<option>", range [php.net](date [php.net]('Y'), 1930)) . '</option>';

I use the implode() trick quite often when building lists and tables. Works slick and reduces code.

[adammc]

Fantastic explanation dreamcatcher, thank you :)

[dreamcatcher]

I use the implode() trick quite often when building lists and tables. Works slick and reduces code.

Coop, thanks for that, an interesting alternative. :)