if block inside echo statement?

You will want to use ~~the~~ a ternary operator which acts as a shortened IF/Else statement:

echo '<option value="'.$value.'" '.(($value=='United States')?'selected="selected"':"").'>'.$value.'</option>';

You can always use the ( <condition> ? <value if true> : <value if false> ) syntax (it's called the ternary operator - thanks to Mark for remining me :) ).

If <condition> is true, the statement would be evaluated as <value if true>. If not, it would be evaluated as <value if false>

For instance:

$fourteen = 14;
$twelve = 12;
echo "Fourteen is ".($fourteen > $twelve ? "more than" : "not more than")." twelve";

This is the same as:

$fourteen = 14;
$twelve = 12;
if($fourteen > 12) {
  echo "Fourteen is more than twelve";
}else{
  echo "Fourteen is not more than twelve";
}

Use a ternary operator:

echo '<option value="'.$value.'"'.($value=='United States' ? 'selected="selected"' : '').'>'.$value.'</option>';

And while you're at it, you could use printf to make your code more readable/manageable:

printf('<option value="%s" %s>%s</option>',
    $value,
    $value == 'United States' ? 'selected="selected"' : ''
    $value);

if block inside echo statement?

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