popup_menu default that isn't

[spork]

I am trying to create a popup menu in a CGI script with a default but I'm having difficulty with setting the default value. Here is my code:

        @values = sort numerically keys %ProgramAreas;
        $default = $ProgramAreas{$ComponentAreas{$ComponentID}};
        print   '<TD ALIGN="right"><B>Program Area:</B></TD><TD ALIGN=
+"left">',
                popup_menu(     -name=> 'ComponentProgramArea',
                                -values=> \@values,
                                -defaults=> \$default,
                                -labels=> \%ProgramAreas),
                                         "</TD><BR><BR><BR>\n";

ProgramAreas is a hash that is used in a few other places and I know that it contains useful and legal data.

$default gets assigned a real, legal value based on a print statement I threw in as a diagnostic. However, when the menu is displayed the default value is the first item in @values and not $default.

What obvious piece am I missing?

[Zaxo]

The attribute is 'default', not 'defaults', and its value shourd be a string, not a reference to scalar. I suspect that you want the values from %ProgramAreas as labels:

    -default => $default,
#    -labels => [@ProgramAreas{@values}] ),

In your sort, do you mean @values = sort {$a <=> $b} keys %ProgramAreas; ? What you have looks like pseudocode, or possibly Perl6 ;-)

Update: Was wrong about labels.

After Compline,
Zaxo

[DigitalKitty]

Hi Spork.

Could you post some more of the source code? If not, you can set a default value with CGI.pm like this:

print popup_menu(-name=>'food',
                 -values=>['pasta','fish','chicken',
                 'vegetables','fruit','bread','dessert'],
                 -default=>'dessert');



I once had a problem with a cgi program I writing where the script wouldn't work until I changed the word 'values' to 'value' ( without the quotes ).

If this reply doesn't provide a solution, just post again o.k?

You can find some more perl/CGI tutorials at:

perl.about.com

and...

devshed.com

I would try a supersearch here first though.

Hope this helps,

-Caitlin