use strict; use warnings; 
use CGI; 

my $q = new CGI;

my $firstname = $q->param('firstname') || '';
my $lastname = $q->param('surname')    || '';
my $cars     = $q->param('cars')       || '';

#too funny .... https://www.w3schools.com/tags/att_option_selected.asp

#$cars='volvo';
print qq|content-type: text/html\n\n|;

print qq|<form action="$ENV{SCRIPT_NAME}" method="post">\n|;
print qq|<input name="firstname" type="text" value="$firstname"/><hr/>
+|;
print qq|<input name="surname"   type="text" value="$lastname"/><hr/>|
+;

print "\n"; 
print qq|<select name="cars" >|,"\n";
my @carlist; 
push @carlist,["volvo","Volvo"]; 
push @carlist,["saab","Saab"]; 
push @carlist,["fiat","Fiat"]; 
push @carlist,["audi","Audi"]; 
for my $cl (@carlist) { 
  my $selected= $cars eq $cl->[0]?'selected ':''; 
  print '  ',qq|<option |,$selected,qq|value="|,$cl->[0],qq|">|,$cl->[
+1],qq|</option>|,"\n";
  } 
print qq|</select>|,"\n";

print qq|<input type="submit" name="form_submit" value="go">|;
[download]

way too funny...