See this sample code .
<html:select property="contentID" size="5" style="width:200px;" >
<html
ptions collection="SearchResult" property="contentID" labelProperty="contentDesc"/>
</html:select>
here property = contentID maps to your attribute in the form bean.
The options collection "SearchResult" in my request/session and its an ArrayList of an Objects which has contentID and contentDesc as attributes/properties. Hope this is clear.