3 different numbers using mt_rand

[jack-sgx]

Hey folks

I'm programming a quiz function into my website. I'm still building the database so I only have 8 questions so far. Code looks like this:

mt_srand((double) microtime() * 1000000);
$random = (mt_rand(1, 8));
$random2 = (mt_rand(1, 8));
$random3 = (mt_rand(1, 8));

Now it seems to work very well but what I want to do is prevent $random, $random2 and or $random3 from being the same.

Can anyone point me in a right direction or is this as best as I can expect to achieve? Thanks very much 🙂

Jack

[theslinky]

for a quick and dirty solution, you can run a while loop to generate those #s:

mt_srand(blah blah);

$random = (mt_rand(1, 8));

do {
$random2 = mt_rand(1, 8);
} while($random2 != $random);

do {
$random3 = mt_rand(1, 8);
} while( ($random3 != $random) && ($random3 != $random2) );

it might be better to write a recursive function if you wish to generate more unique random numbers.

-sridhar

[theslinky]

my code will generate three SAME #s... change it to:

mt_srand(blah blah);

$random = (mt_rand(1, 8));

do {
$random2 = mt_rand(1, 8);
} while($random2 == $random);

do {
$random3 = mt_rand(1, 8);
} while( ($random3 == $random) || ($random3 == $random2) );

:-)