Alternative to rand()

[Anon]

I'm very much a newbie, so a less technical response would be appreciated. I'm trying to find an alternative for fetching random elements from mySQL, and to garrenty that the same element is only used once.

I can't get array_splice to work properlyin my code.Please help.

Thanks in advance.

<?

mysql_connect();
mysql_select_db("quiz");

$easy = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM easy");

$question = array();
$optiona = array();
$optionb = array();
$optionc = array();
$optiond = array();
$optione = array();
$correct = array();
$feedback = array();
$sound = array();

while($result = mysql_fetch_array($easy))
{

    array_push($question, $result["question"]);
    array_push($optiona, $result["optiona"]);
    array_push($optionb, $result["optionb"]);
    array_push($optionc, $result["optionc"]);
    array_push($optiond, $result["optiond"]);
    array_push($optione, $result["optione"]);
    array_push($feedback, $result["feedback"]);
    array_push($correct, $result["correct"]);
    array_push($sound, $result["sound"]);

}

$question = array_values($question);
$optiona = array_values($optiona);
$optionb = array_values($optionb);
$optionc = array_values($optionc);
$optiond = array_values($optiond);
$optione = array_values($optione);
$correct = array_values($correct);
$feedback = array_values($feedback);
$sound = array_values($sound);

for($i = 0 ; $i<=10 ; $i++)
{

   $rndnum = rand(0, count($question)-1);
   $sendquestion .= $question[$rndnum]."\n";
   $sendoptiona .= $optiona[$rndnum]."\n";
   $sendoptionb .= $optionb[$rndnum]."\n";
   $sendoptionc .= $optionc[$rndnum]."\n";
   $sendoptiond .= $optiond[$rndnum]."\n";
   $sendoptione .= $optione[$rndnum]."\n";
   $sendcorrect .= $feedback[$rndnum]."\n";
   $sendfeedback .= $feedback[$rndnum]."\n";
   $sendsound .= $sound[$i]."\n";
   $sendrnd .=$rndnum;

       print($sendquestion);
       print($sendoptiona);
       print($sendoptionb);
       print($sendoptionc&);
       print($sendoptiond);
       print($sendoptione);
       print($sendcorrect);
       print($sendfeedback);
       print($sendsound);
       print($sendrnd);

            array_splice($question, $rndnum,$rndnum);
            array_splice($optiona, $rndnum,$rndnum);
            array_splice($optionb, $rndnum,$rndnum);
            array_splice($optionc, $rndnum,$rndnum);
            array_splice($optiond, $rndnum,$rndnum);
            array_splice($optione, $rndnum,$rndnum);
            array_splice($correct, $rndnum,$rndnum);
            array_splice($feedback, $rndnum,$rndnum);
            array_splice($sound, $rndnum,$rndnum);

}

?>

[Anon]

Only used ONCE forever?
Or just NOT make it come twice in a row...?

Well...
You could make col or something to hold data om what ID was last displayed...

but to order something randomly just do ORDER BY RAND() ...

Hope it helps, Arni

[Anon]

Thanks alot, I didn't even think of doing through mySQL. This backend stuff is all new to me.

[Anon]

Just remember...

If you can do it through SQL, it takes less time and therefor saves execution time...

Regards, Arni

[junebug]

is there a reason you are using static passwords and generating them? this seems a very difficult way of doing things. anyway, here you go:

select pass from table order by rand() limit 1

http://www.mysql.com/doc/M/a/Mathematical_functions.html