If you would like your application to set the selected item in your dropdownlist to an item from a variable passed to it, or from the database

Here are some examples:

ASP.NET 

<asp:DropDownList ID="DropDownList1" runat="server"/><br />

DropDownList1.SelectedIndex = DropDownList1.Items.IndexOf(DropDownList1.Items.FindByValue(value.ToString()));

VBScript ASP Example:

  response.write "<select size=""1"" name=""selectData"" id=""selectData"">"
  response.write "<option value='0'>-- Select  Data --</option>"
  do while not objRs.eof

      if (ContactType = objRS("Value")) then
          response.write "<option value='"+cstr(objRS("Value"))+"' selected>"+objRS("Description")+"</option>"
      else
          response.write "<option value='"+cstr(objRS("Value"))+"'>"+objRS("Description")+"</option>"
      end if

      objRs.MoveNext
  loop
  response.write "</select></font></p>"

If you have a lot of variables i suggest using a for loop:

    response.write "<select name='select1'>"

    Dim MyWebSiteArray
    PrefOddsArray = MyWebSiteArray("web design","design","website","nathan","baker")

    For each Item in MyWebSiteArray

   DatabaseValue = RS("ValueFromDatabase")

   if(DatabaseValue = Item)  then
        response.write "<option value="""+Item+""" selected>"+Item+"</option>\n"
    else
        response.write "<option value="""+Item+""">"+Item+"</option>\n"
    end if
    Next
    response.write "</select></td>"
    response.write "</tr>"