Random include..

[IanM]

I have a website that uses a lot of includes...
I would like to make these random, so that the page is always different when it is loaded...

For instance, taking just two includes, I have

<? include ("/path/to/file/latestposts.php"); ?>

and

<? include ("/path/to/file/stats.php"); ?>

I would like these two includes to be random so that only one is displayed...

Any ideas😕

[jmcneese]

$rand = rand(0,999);

if($rand/2) {
    include("file1.php");
} else {
    include("file2.php");
}

[waygood]

<?php
srand((double)microtime()*1000000); // seed the randomiser
if(rand(1,2)==1) //pick a random number between 1 and 2 inclusive
{
include("/path/to/file/latestposts.php");
}
else
{
include("/path/to/file/stats.php");
}
?>

[jayant]

Acc. to PHP documentation mt_rand() is supposed to yield better results than rand()

I will use mt_srand() and mt_rand() instead of srand() and rand()

[IanM]

Excellent, got it working..

I used this..

	<?php 
		mt_srand((double)microtime()*1000000); // seed the randomiser 
		if(mt_rand(1,2)==1) //pick a random number between 1 and 2 inclusive 
		{ 
		include ("/path/to/file/latestposts.php"); 
		} 
		else 
		{ 
		include ("/path/to/file/stats.php"); 
		} 
	?>

Thanks for the quick reponse as always 😃

[IanM]

How would I change the above code I'm using now, to use more than 2 includes??

Say for example, I wanted to use 4 includes now??

[waygood]

Had a funny feeling this question was going to pop up 😉

<?php 
  mt_srand((double)microtime()*1000000); // seed the randomiser 
  $inc_list[] = "/path/to/file/latestposts.php"; 
  $inc_list[] = "/path/to/file/stats.php"; 
  include($inc_list[mt_rand(0,sizeof($inc_list)-1)]);
?>

if all your includes are in one directory omit the path in the declaration and include it in the include() statement

$inc_list[]="stats.php";
include($path . $inc_list[mt_rand(0,sizeof($inc_list))]);

[IanM]

Hehe, you must be able to read my mind...:p
Anyway, thanks again, it works great!

I had to keep the include paths seperate because I have some in different directories..