PHP array problem?

I'm new to PHP and I want this code <option value="" disabled="disabled">-------------</option> to be disabled when the php code is building my select list of options. How can I fix my php code so it will always set that specific option to disabled?

Here is part of the php code.

echo '<select name="country" id="country" size="20">' . "\n";
  foreach($countries as $option) {
    if ($option == $state) {
      echo '<option value="' . $option . '" selected="selected">' . $option . '</option>' . "\n";
    } else {
      echo '<option value="'. $option . '">' . $option . '</option>'."\n";
    }
  }
echo '</select>';

Here is part of the HTML code that is outputed from the php code.

    <option value="United States">United States</option>
    &开发者_如何学Clt;option value="Australia">Australia</option>
    <option value="Canada">Canada</option>
    <option value="United Kingdom">United Kingdom</option>
    <option value="India">India</option>
    <option value="" disabled="disabled">-------------</option>
    <option value="Afghanistan">Afghanistan</option>
    <option value="Aland Islands">Aland Islands</option>

    <option value="Albania">Albania</option>
    <option value="Algeria">Algeria</option>
    <option value="American Samoa">American Samoa</option>
    <option value="Andorra">Andorra</option>

---

echo '<select name="country" id="country" size="20">' . "\n";
  foreach($countries as $option) {
    if ($option == $state) {
      echo '<option value="' . $option . '" selected="selected">' . $option . '</option>' . "\n";
    } 
    else if($option == "-------------------"){
      echo '<option value="" disabled="disabled">----------------</option>';
    }
    else {
      echo '<option value="'. $option . '">' . $option . '</option>'."\n";
    }
  }
echo '</select>';

---

Usually, what you do is add these special cases outside the normal flow of the for, unless the database does represent a null option. For example, I could do it like this (using short tags, which might be unavailable):

<select name="country" id="country" size="20">
    <option value="" disabled="disabled">----------------</option>
<?php 
foreach($countries as $option):
    if ($option == $state): ?>
        <option value="<?=$option ?>" selected="selected"><?=$option?></option>
    <? else: ?>
        <option value="<?=$option ?>"><?=$option ?></option>
    <? endif;
endforeach; ?>
</select>

I apologize for any syntax errors, I don't have my webserver available right now.