[ctrl-alt-del]

My question happens to be basic PHP/HTML, but since I'm not a developer, I can't figure out the issue.

I'm trying to associate values (numeric) based on a selection of a dropdown. The numeric variable is associated to a thread ID wherease the dropdown selection is a recognizable name.

Here's the default code:

<select name="dropdownanswer1">
<option value="$dropdownchoice1a" <if condition="$dropdownchoice1a == $dropdownanswer1">selected="selected"</if>>$dropdownchoice1a</option>
</select>

I need to change it to something like:

<option value="$dropdownthreadID" <if condition="$dropdownchoice1a == $dropdownanswer1">selected="selected"</if>>$dropdownchoice1a</option>

Where:
$dropdownthreadID = 100
$dropdownchoice1a = Monday

These variables are called within a newthread_start plugin.

//EXISTING THREAD ID FOR FORM TO REPLY IN
$formreplythreadid = "$dropdownanswer1";

Here's the problem: I can't seem to figure out how to call the named variable (Monday) when the form is submitted. Instead, I get the numerical value. Perhaps it's just a simple IF statement I need to add that writes Monday into another variable. However, I can't seem to figure it out.

Any help would be appreciated!