Random Time?

[Anon]

how would i go about doing this with the use of the mt_srand and mt_rand function with or without using MySQL???

[mithril]

Use the example which comes directly from the manual, with one minor modification. You need to seed the random number generator then specify the range of possible values mt_rand() can generate (this is also discussed in the docs).

&nbsp;&nbsp;<?php
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;function make_seed() {
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;list($usec, $sec) = explode(' ', microtime());
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;return (float) $sec + ((float) $usec * 100000);
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;}

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;mt_srand(make_seed());
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;$randval = mt_rand(0,mktime());

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;echo "The randomly generated date is: " . date("Y-m-d H:i:s", $randval);
&nbsp;&nbsp;?>

Setting the max. of the randval range with mktime() ensures that your generated timestamp is for a date/time that has already occurred (ie. not in the future). Modify the mt_rand() range accordingly to limit the possible time (remember to use valid timestamp values though).

-geoff