Thanks for the responses. I could not implement the method Dr. Massimo offered because I didn't know what to use instead of 'reference city' in his method. I am sorry. I am a total beginner.
Also, I have 2 more questions. The first one is: How can I remove the first item from the drop-down menu, as it is just a blank option. Second question is that how can I figure out which item is selected? Just to be clear, I used form = SQLFORM.factory(Field('choose_city','reference cities')) to create my form. Thanks, S.