populating a textarea from MySQL database

[tamiya]

hiya...

I need help in populating a textarea on a website using data from MySql. Basically, what needs to happen, is that i have to display a list of existing categories (already in the database) to the user, who can then see what is already there, and can then add another category to the list... Im coding in php, using javascript for all other things php cant do...

current code lloks like this:

<tr>
<td align="right" width="50%"><font size="-1">Existing Categories: </font></td>
<td><textarea name="catlist" cols="" rows="5" readonly="readonly" dir="ltr"></textarea></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right" width="50%"><font size="-1">New Category: </font></td>
<td><input name="catname" type="text"></td>
</tr>

please help
thx

[NogDog]

Query the desired data from the database, assign it to a variable, and echo that variable between the starting and ending textarea tags.