title: dynamically populate mysql array into drop down menu
body: <p>I have a database that I want to get data out onto a website. It contains states listed by name and id. Counties listed by id, namne , and state that contains thems ID and then clubs that exist , with a reference to the county id's that they exist in and columns for their actual data.</p>
  
  <p>What I've got :</p>
  
  <p>A drop down menu that populates itself with state id and name.</p>
  
  <p>What I'd like to accomplish:</p>
  
  <p>On selection of state , let's say ny , take it's id and use this in gathering another mysql array for the county drop down. I'd like it to dynamically occur on selection of state , maybe even giving a count of results next to the drop down.</p>
  
  <pre><code>$resstate = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM state ORDER by longstate;") or die("Note: " . mysql_error());
  State:
     &lt;select name="State" size=1&gt;
       &lt;?
          while( $rs = mysql_fetch_array( $resstate ) ) {
              echo "&lt;option value=" .$rs['id'] . "&gt;" . $rs['longstate'] . "&lt;/option&gt;";
          }
     echo "&lt;/select&gt;";
  ?&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I know I could use a JavaScript <code>onChange="this.form.submit()"</code> on the first drop down, but it's my understanding that I'd then be making a new page at that point and don't know if I could keep the functionality of the state drop down, say if you accidentally chose new Hampshire when you wanted New York.</p>
  
  <p>here's an example of the current array filling the drop down :</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://snowmobileamerica.com/countytest.php" rel="nofollow">http://snowmobileamerica.com/countytest.php</a></p>
  
  <p>----EDIT---</p>
  
  <p>Using Dagons Advice , I looked into Ajax.</p>
  
  <p>I made a php file that's supposed to query the database based on a reference to getcounty.php?q=</p>
  
  <p>The file is created as follows :</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?php
  $q=$_GET["q"];
  
  $cn=mysql_connect("localhost","user","password") or die("Note: " . mysql_error());
  
  mysql_select_db("snowusa_clubs", $cn);
  
  $sql="SELECT * FROM county WHERE state_id = '".$q."' ORDER by name";
  
  $result = mysql_query($sql);
  
  
  echo "&lt;select name="County" size=1&gt;";
  
  while($rc = mysql_fetch_array($result))
  {
  echo "&lt;option value=" .$rc['id'] . "&gt;" . $rc['name'] . "&lt;/option&gt;";
   }
  
   echo "&lt;/select&gt;";
  
  mysql_close($cn);
   ?&gt; 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>If i try to run it manually  <a href="http://www.snowmobileamerica.com/getcounty.php?q=33" rel="nofollow">http://www.snowmobileamerica.com/getcounty.php?q=33</a> I get a 500 internal server error... </p>
  
  <p>Any ideas where I went wrong?</p>