title: Updating database record after displaying to user
body: <p>I have a question on how to update a particular record in a database using JSTL and java servlets.  </p>
  
  <p>Ok to call one record, I use a servlet to run a query to populate a jsp page using this type of format.  </p>
  
  <pre><code>        ResultSet results = getRecords.executeQuery();  //run database query
          Result result = ResultSupport.toResult(results);  
          request.setAttribute("result", result);
          RequestDispatcher rd = request.getRequestDispatcher("/showReport.jsp");  //redirect to this page with query info
          rd.forward(request, response);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>In the jsp page, I use this format to populate the page.<br>
  the row number is the corresponding to the index of the value on how the query is run.</p>
  
  <pre><code>    &lt;c:forEach var="row" items="${result.rowsByIndex}"&gt; 
  &lt;form action = "/runthis/servlet?id=${row[0]}" method = "get" &gt;
      Employee Name&lt;input type="text"  value="&lt;c:out value="${row[2]}"/&gt;" /&gt;
      Department&lt;select&gt;
      &lt;option value="&lt;c:out value="${row[4]}"/&gt;"&gt;&lt;c:out value="${row[4]}"/&gt;&lt;/option&gt;&lt;/select&gt;
  &lt;input type="submit" value="Save"&gt;
  &lt;/form&gt;
      &lt;/c:forEach&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So for instance, if someone changes the Employee Name, but leaves the Department field alone, or vice versa, how would I go about this?  </p>
  
  <p>I think I should be able to kick this form action to a "update servlet", but I would rather not "update" every element in the record if I do not need to.</p>
  
  <p>Also I'm still learning web dev, so if you can think of a better way to prepopulate stuff, via javascript or whatever, I'm willing to try that as well, if it's a possible solution.  </p>
  
  <p>Thanks for any help!</p>