get selected multiple value in textarea

Question

I have a db_field (shortcode) that returns a string when submited query. the value from that return is AB,EF,GH (exactly this!

The second part is that i have a textarea with a list of that shortcodes. So i trying to highlight (selected) the same macthed elements. for example:

$String_in_Database = AB,EF,GH;

Wish to have that:

<select name="Country[]" id="Country" multiple="multiple" size="5">
<option value="AB" selected>AB</option>
<option value="CD">CD</option>
<option value="EF" selected>EF</option>
<option value="GH" selected>GH</option>
......
</select>

This is how i generate the options:

<?php $MyArray = $settingsUser['set_disallowcountries']; ?>
<?php foreach($disallCountry as $key => $value) { ?>
<option value="<?php echo $value['short'] ?>" <?php if(is_array($value['short'], $MyArray)) { echo 'selected'; }?>><?php echo $value['long'] ?></option>
<?php } ?>

Answer 1

Maybe you want to explode this string into array?

 $MyArray = explode(",",$String_in_Database);