Selected value in dropbox HTML

Selected value in dropbox HTML

I have the following code that programatically generates a dropdown box in
php for me.
echo "<select name=\"choice\">";
echo "<option selected=\"selected\" disabled=\"disabled\">Number of
Columns</option>";
for ($i = 1; $i <= 10; $i++) {
echo "<option>$i</option>";
}
echo "</select>";
I need to use whatever item the user selects later but I'm not actually
sure where the selected value is stored? I know this sounds silly but how
do I access the selected item through HTML once the user has made a
choice?
Thanks