php - if block inside echo statement?

Question

I suspect it's not allowable because I am getting "Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_IF in..." error. But I couldn't find a way to accomplish my goal. Here's my code:

<?php 

  $countries = $myaddress->get_countries();

  foreach($countries as $value){
    echo '<option value="'.$value.'"'.if($value=='United States') echo 'selected="selected"';.'>'.$value.'</option>';
  }
  ?>

What it does is it displays a list of countries in a select element and sets United States as the default. I doesn't work sadly...

Answer 1

You will want to use the a ternary operator which acts as a shortened IF/Else statement:

echo '<option value="'.$value.'" '.(($value=='United States')?'selected="selected"':"").'>'.$value.'</option>';