Thanks for your help. I still get a syntax error after replacing with your code because of the single quote mark.
I had this originally:
<?php
echo "<option value='" . ((!empty($WADAcac_prod_subcategory_leveltwo_NEW_insertx->getColumnVal('prod_name')))?html_entity_decode($WADAcac_prod_subcategory_leveltwo_NEW_insertx->getColumnVal('prod_name')):html_entity_decode($WADAcac_prod_subcategory_leveltwo_NEW_insertx->getColumnVal('prod_name2'))) . "' " . "selected>";
echo html_entity_decode($WADAcac_prod_subcategory_leveltwo_NEW_insertx->getColumnVal('prod_name')) . html_entity_decode($WADAcac_prod_subcategory_leveltwo_NEW_insertx->getColumnVal('prod_name2')) ;
echo "</option>";
?>