OnChange Filter To First Value Request

[Zanz]

Hello
I am running a php & java script that when searching for a property, it uses the onchange feature for three fields regarding the location of the property.
for example: Country, Parish, Area

When you choose a country, you then choose a Parish(which correspons to the country) and then an Area (that corresponds to the Parish)

Thing is, I am only using one country and would like the script to automatically show/filter to that country rather than 'Any'. For example I would want the Country field to show United Kingdom as a default.

Here is a link to a screenshot of how it looks now:
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=vncsw5&s=5


And here is a segment of the code from the php file that it uses to change the fields

 <form action="<?php echo URL ?>/search.php" method="POST" name="form">




<?php echo $lang['WHERE']; ?>:</h2>

<?php echo $lang['Location1'] ?> <br>
<select name="location1" class="span3" onchange="update(this, locations);">
<option></option>
<option></option>
<option></option>
</select>
<br>
<br>
<?php echo $lang['Location2'] ?> <br>
<select name="location2" class="span3" onChange="update(this, locations);">
<option></option>
<option></option>
<option></option>
</select>
<br>
<br>
<?php echo $lang['Location3'] ?> <br>
<select name="location3" class="span3">
<option></option>
<option></option>
<option></option>
</select>

<input type="hidden" name="form" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="loc" value="">

<br><br>

What i want is to filter to first value(United Kingdom) by default in the dropdown (location1)
I checked on the net and it was suggested to have another javascript running after the listbox using selectedIndex=1 but I'm not sure how to implement it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

[PeejAvery]

You could use selectedIndex. It is very simple. The index corresponds to the <option> that you want to be preselected. However, it is not the best solution. You want to use the selected attribute in the <option> tag.

<select name="foo">
<option>bar 1</option>
<option>bar 2</option>
<option selected="selected">bar 3</option>
</select>

[Zanz]

THanks PJ
Its still not having the first value from the database being shown first tho

My focus is on this part of the code

<?php echo $lang['WHERE']; ?>:</h2>

<?php echo $lang['Location1'] ?> <br>
<select name="location1" class="span3" onchange="update(this, locations);">
<option></option>
<option></option>
<option></option>
</select>
<br>

See the options come from a database and are not put in manually
I only just saw there is a java forum. SHould I post this query in there? Just checking
Thanks again