Form dropdown is giving me index and not the text - codeigniter

Question

Can you help out a new learner of Codeigniter? for some reason my form dropdown is giving me the index as input->post. I just need the text selected.
Model
function get_items(){
$this->db->select('item_name');
$this->db->from('commissary_items');
$query=$this->db->get();
$result=$query->result();
$item_names=array('-SELECT-');
for($i=0;$i<count($result);$i++){
array_push($item_names,$result[$i]->item_name);
}
return $item_names;
}
View
<div class="form-group">
<div class="row colbox">
<div class="col-lg-4 col-sm-4">
<label for="item_name" class="control-label">Item</label>
</div>
<div class="col-lg-8 col-sm-8">
<?php
$attributes = 'class = "form-control" id = "item_name"';
echo form_dropdown('item_name',$item_name,set_value('item_name'),$attributes);?>
<span class="text-danger"><?php echo form_error('item_name'); ?></span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Controller
public function new_inventory(){
$data['item_name']=$this->commissary_model->get_items();
$this->form_validation->set_rules('date_added','Date Added','required');
$this->form_validation->set_rules('item_name','Item Name','callback_combo_check');
$this->form_validation->set_rules('quantity','Quantity','required');
$this->form_validation->set_rules('amount','Amount','required|numeric');
$this->form_validation->set_rules('username','User Name');
if($this->form_validation->run()==FALSE){
// $data="";
$this->load->view('new_inventory_view',$data);
}else{
$data=array(
'date_added'=>#date('Y-m-d',#strtotime($this->input->post('date_added'))),
'item_name'=>$this->input->post('item_name'),
'quantity'=>$this->input->post('quantity'),
'amount'=>$this->input->post('amount'),
'username'=>$this->session->userdata('username')
);
$this->db->insert('add_inventory',$data);
$this->session->set_flashdata('msg','<div class="alert alert-success text-center">Item added to inventory.</div>');
redirect('commissary/added_to_inventory');
}
}
Instead of the "text value" inside the form dropdown, I get the index 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 etc.... Thank you.

Answer 1

That is how <select> options work - the value of the select option is returned.
If you want the text you will have to setup $item_names differently and have the index be the same as the text. Easily accomplished with a little restructuring in the model.
function get_items()
{
$this->db->select('item_name');
$this->db->from('commissary_items');
$query = $this->db->get();
$result = $query->result();
$item_names = array();
foreach($result as $item)
{
$item_names[$item->item_name] = $item->item_name;
}
return $item_names;
}