Matching data from a drop down menu in add.cpt to view.ctp - cakephp

Question

Title seems a bit odd as I am trying to find way's to explain my dilema in layman's terms.
What I am trying to achieve is is from what I can gather, fairly simple but.. I just can't seem to place my finger on it.
I have a drop down selection menu which users can select a country of residence which resides in a helper - example below:
class CountryListHelper extends FormHelper {
var $helpers = array('Form');
function select($fieldname) {
$list = $this->Form->input($fieldname , array(
'type' => 'select', 'label' => 'Country of Residence', 'options' => array(
'' => 'Please select a country',
'AF' => 'Afganistan',
'AL' => 'Albania',
'DZ' => 'Algeria',
.................
),
'error' => 'Please select a country'));
return $this->output($list);
}
}
in the add.ctp:
<?php echo $this->CountryList->select('country');?>
Pretty simple stuff - on save it writes the acronym to the country field.
My issue is.. When pulling the data to view.ctp, how would I go about displaying the full country name as apposed to the acronym saved in the database without having to write the entire list down in view.ctp and matching the acronym to Country name there..
<dt<?php if ($i % 2 == 0) echo $class;?>><?php __('Country of Residence'); ?></dt>
<dd<?php if ($i++ % 2 == 0) echo $class;?>>
<?php echo $user['User']['country']; ?>
</dd>
Any and all help is very much appreciated!

Answer 1

Add a new function to the helper that returns the full name of the country.
class CountryListHelper extends FormHelper {
var $helpers = array('Form');
var $countryList = array(
'AF' => 'Afganistan',
'AL' => 'Albania',
'DZ' => 'Algeria',
.................
);
function select($fieldname) {
$list = $this->Form->input($fieldname , array(
'type' => 'select', 'label' => 'Country of Residence',
'options' => $this->countryList,
'empty' => 'Please select a country',
'error' => 'Please select a country'));
return $this->output($list);
}
function fullName( $abbr ) {
return $this->countryList[ $abbr ];
// + error checking
}
}