I am trying to create an array for years which i will use in the DOB year piece of a form I am building. Currently, I know there are two ways to handle the issue but I don't really care for either:

1) Range:

I know I can create a year array using the following

<?php 
     $year = range(1910,date("Y"));
     $_SESSION['years_arr'] = $year;
?>

the problem with Point 1 is two fold: a) my function call shows the first year as 'selected' instead of "Year" as I have as option="0", and b) I want the years reversed so 2010 is the first in the least and shown decreasing.

My function call is:

PHP

<?php
    function showOptionsDrop($array, $active, $echo=true){
        $string = '';

        foreach($array as $k => $v){
            $s = ($active == $k)? ' selected="selected"' : '';
            $string .= '<option value="'.$k.'"'.$s.'>'.$v.'</option>'."\n";     
        }

        if($echo)   echo $string;
        else        return $string;
    }
?>

HTML

<table>
            <tr>
            <td>State:</td>
            <td><select name="F1State"><option value="0">Choose a year</option><?php showOptionsDrop($_SESSION['years_arr'], null, true); ?></select>
            </td>
            </tr>
</table>

2) Long Array

I know i can physically create an array with years listed out but this takes up a lot of space and time if I ever want to go back and modify.

ex: PHP

$years = array('1900'=>"1900", '1901'=>"1901", '1902'=>"1902", '1903'=>"1903", '1904'=>"1904", '1905'=>"1905", '1906'=>"1906", '1907'=>"1907", '1908'=>"1908", '1909'=>"1909", '1910'=>"1910", '1911'=>"1911", '1912'=>"1912", '1913'=>"1913", '1914'=>"19