View data repeating when using dynamic dropdowns

[eluser]Silvrbak[/eluser]
I am trying to create a data add form with multiple dropdowns that get their options from a database. The dropdowns populate but only after errors are shown for the dropdowns. in essance the form is created twice, incorrect the first time then correct the second. I am using the same technique from this post to generate the dropdown data. How do I get the form to just show once?

Here are the errors,

Code:

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Notice

Message: Undefined variable: dropdown_cat

Filename: views/addfeature.php

Line Number: 12

Code:

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()

Filename: helpers/form_helper.php

Line Number: 262