Set_Select on dropdown function.

[eluser]Unknown[/eluser]
Hello,

Maybe I'm doing this incorrectly by CI(MVC) standards (100% most likely the case), but I've got a function put inside of a helper.

Code:

function date_dropdown()
{
    /* Months */
    $form_output = '<select name="release_month" id="release_month">';
        $months = array('','January','Febuary','March','April','May','June','July','August','September','October','Novemeber','December');
        for ( $month = 1; $month <= 12; $month++)
        {    
            $form_output .= '<option value="' . $month .'">' . $months[$month] . '</option>';
        }
    $form_output .= '</select>';
    /* Days */
    $form_output .= '<select name="release_day" id="release_day">';
        for ( $day = 1; $day <= 31; $day++ )
        {
            $form_output .= '<option value="' . $day . '">'. $day .'</option>';
        }
    $form_output .= '</select>';
    /* Years */
    $form_output .= '<select name="release_year" id="release_year">';
        for ( $year = 1952; $year <= ( date("Y") ); $year++ )
        {
            $form_output .= '<option value="' . $year . '">' . $year . '</option>';
        }
    $form_output .= '</select>';
    
    return $form_output;
}

Now, I'm calling this in my view to create a date dropdown list. The list itself works flawlessly, but my problem is trying to get it to be able to re-populate on form error.

I can't put the set_select('name','value') snippet into that code - so exactly how would one go through with ensuring these fields are repopulated? I've been playing around with this for about 2 hours now.

--edit;
I guess while I'm here, I'm also having issues repopulating multiple selects. Only the last selection is saved.

Thanks.