Random Include (asp to php)

fluffco

Hi - I'm very very new to php and I'm just beginning the process of switching a number of NT hosted sites which use asp over to a linux server with php.

I'm not doing anything to complex with asp but need some major syntax pointers for the php conversion as I'm not a coder.

Here's what I'm working on. On a couple of my asp-based sites I'm using this block of script to randomly insert images, text, etc.

<%
randomize()
randomnum=int(rnd*3)+1
SELECT CASE randomnum
CASE 1%>

<%CASE 2%>

<%CASE 3%>

<%END SELECT%>

I want the included files to be able to have any sort of name and that's why this uses the numbered "cases" instead of including specifically numbered files.

Can someone point me in the right direction here?

Thanks so much -- Davin

Anon

Here is a cool solution. As long as you are using PHP4 (if not, I have a function for php3), you can use the array_rand(array)function. For example:

$include_files = Array("a.php", "b.php", "c.php");
$random_file = array_rand($include_files);
include($include_files[$random_file]);

Now, this can work for as many files as you like, as you just insert more into the array. array_rand will take the array and choose a random key inside the array and return it. So, all you need to do after that is show it with $include_files[array_rand ret] to get the file you need .. hope that helps!

Chris King

fluffco

Thanks Chris - this is definitely better (and nice and small!) but what this seems to be doing is always including the first item in the array.

I'm sure I've probably missed something. here's exactly what I've put in:

<?
$include_files = Array("includes/donut_a.php", "includes/donut_b.php", "includes/donut_c.php", "includes/donut_d.php", "includes/donut_e.php", "includes/donut_f.php", "includes/donut_g.php");
$random_file = array_rand($include_files);
include($include_files[$random_file]);
?>

Do I need something else in there to specify the range of the random choice from the array?

Sorry, I am very new to this.

Thanks again.

fluffco

er... Sorry I forgot the 'srand' call before using 'array_rand'. really shows my beginner status.

Thanks