custom forms - data collection

[DivaVocals]

Well I may have been confused by the array section of this code, but I understood enough of this post to figure out how to adapt the validation portion of this code for my own form's dropdowns..

// do you want to set a default selection?  if not, use '0':
$default_pulldown_selection = '2';

//For validation, you're looking for the contents of the $_POST['my_pulldown_menu'] variable
// this is only set after "submit" is clicked.
$pulldown_selected_item = (isset($_POST['my_pulldown_menu'])) ? $_POST['my_pulldown_menu'] : $default_pulldown_selection ;


//build an array of entries to be displayed on the template:
    $pulldown_contents[] = array('id'=>'0', 'text'=>'Please Select');
    $pulldown_contents[] = array('id'=>'1', 'text'=>'Choice Number 1');
    $pulldown_contents[] = array('id'=>'2', 'text'=>'Choice Number 2');
    $pulldown_contents[] = array('id'=>'3', 'text'=>'Choice Number 3');
    $pulldown_contents[] = array('id'=>'4', 'text'=>'Choice Number 4');
    $pulldown_contents[] = array('id'=>'5', 'text'=>'Choice Number 5');


// you could add some validation here.
if ($pulldown_selected_item==0) { 
  $messageStack->add_session('header','Please select an option from the pulldown menu','error');
} 

From this I added the following to my own form handler:

if ($question4==0) { 
  $error = true;
  $messageStack->add('customer_questionnaire','Do you prefer virgin hair?: Please select an option from the pulldown menu');
}  
if ($question5==0) { 
  $error = true;
  $messageStack->add('customer_questionnaire','Have you had experience with premium hair?: Please select an option from the pulldown menu');
}

I've seen the question on how to add dropdowns in this thread a bit.. So I wanted to share what I did in case it is of use to someone else.

Plus I also wanted to share the rest of the code posted here because someone with REAL coding skills might be able to use this information the way it's meant to be used..