Prendi spunto da questo:

Codice PHP:
<form name="selpv" method="POST" action="visualizza.php">
    <select name="sel" id="sel"> 
        <option value="">Seleziona...</option> 
        <option value="">----------</option> 
        <option value="tutti">Tutti</option> 
        <option value="">----------</option>
        <?php // richiamo la connessione al db require 'connessione.php';
            
$sel "";
            if (isset(
$_POST['sel'])) {
                
$sel $_POST['sel'];
            }
            
$sql "SELECT * FROM pvendita order by nome ";
            
$ris mysql_query($sql); 
            while (
$row mysql_fetch_array($ris)) {
                
$selected "";
                if (
$row['id_pv'] === $sel) {
                    
$selected "selected";
                }
                echo 
"<option value=\"".$row['id_pv']."\" $selected >".$row['nome']."</option>\n"
            }
        
?>
    </select>
     <input type="submit" value="Visualizza"/>
</form>