select/option with cfquery - how to pass selected value to field downform

I followed your suggestion - I changed the form to a cfform, the input to a cfinput and the select to a cfselect.  On the cfinput where I wanted to put the updated field, I put the bind statement: <cfinput type="Text" name="subject"  required="Yes" size="70" maxlength="70"  bind="{approval_type.text}">

This 'exercise' was to create an E-Mail heading, so my bind statement changed to:

<cfinput type="Text" name="subject"  required="Yes" size="70" maxlength="70"  bind="#RequestId# {approval_type.text}  Approval Request">

Whenselected, I get  "1106-0001 UAT Approval Request"  Just what I wanted!!

My only problem now is that the bind statement only triggers only when an entry other than the first one is selected.  It won't load/take the first record from the query (unless you select another one, click out, then back in).  So if the user decides they want the first record from the query, nothing happens, even if they click on the dropdown and select the record.  So very close.  Any ideas?

You will need to do it with JS as the values you want to access are not set until the form is submitted. This should give you what you want.

It uses a hidden form field to hold the requestID, that is then accessed with JS. (I am assuming this value is available when the page loads)

<form action="index.cfm?fuseaction=sendEmail" method="POST" name="email_approval" enctype="multipart/form-data">
<input type="hidden" name="requestID" id="reqID" value="1234" />
<table width="500" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="center">
<tr>
  <td align="left">Email Type:</td>
  <td align="left" colspan="2">
      <select name="approval_type" id="approval_type" size="1" >
         <option value="test" style="font-size:8pt">test</option>
     </select>
  </td>
  <td align="left"> </td>
  <td align="left">Date Sent:</td>
  <td align="left"><b><cfoutput>#dateformat(Now(), "MM/DD/YYYY")#</cfoutput></b></td>
</tr>

<script  type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript">

function setValue(){

    var e = document.getElementById("approval_type");

    var approval_type_value = e.options[e.selectedIndex].value;

    var subjectLine = document.getElementById('reqID').value + ' ' + approval_type_value + ' Approval Request';

    document.getElementById("subject").value = subjectLine;

<tr>
  <td align="left">Subject:</td>
  <td align="left" colspan="5">
   <b><input type="Text" name="subject"  required="Yes" size="70" maxlength="70" onClick="setValue();"></b>
</td>
</tr>