diffrent approach to same problem

[filn]

hey all. i was thinking about all the help youve given me on my last question and ive realized that i dont think that that is exactly what it is im trying to do. so ive decided to ask if this way would work better:

what i want to do is get a random number between X and Y (which i have been able to do, no problem). I want to assign each EVEN number the value of LEFT and every ODD number the value of RIGHT (i kinda got this to work but not really, it just printed a long string of "rightleftrightleft"). But, i want it to print out the right and left for each number starting with X and ending with Y. Maybe even assign the lefts to an array and the rights to a diffrent array for later use.

then what i want to know is, from those results, how can i display the resulting LEFTs and RIGHTs in a random way ?

and also how can i display the LEFTs and RIGHTs in diffrent places on the page ?

--

im trying to make a script that gives random directions.
you enter a distance (steps you want to take), then it
decides a random number of turns for you to make (based on
odd numbers being left turns and even numbers being right turns) and then it creates random distances between each turn that adds up to the total distance the user input.

basicly all ive been able to do is get the distance input, generate a random number for the ammount of turns. im not much of a programmer, but im willing to learn if somebody would take the time to help out. and please do me a huge favor, if you reply with a big chunk of code, please please add a few comments of what does what so i can understand it a little easier. i have a working knowledge of php, but by far am no master.

[JDcrack]

If i understand correctly:

I suppose you could use a case statement or if statement
(assuming "$lasdigit" is the last digit in your random number, ie if the random number ws 231654 , $lastdigit = 4)

if ($lastdigit = 1 || 3 || 5 || 7 || 9){
$somevar="left";

}

[rharter]

for($i=0;$i+$rand_start < $rand_stop;$i++) {
if ($i%2 == 0) {
// it's even
$dir[$i] = 'right';
} else {
// it's odd
$dir[$i] = 'left';
}
// array is now initialized with left/right/left/right
// generate a random number between $rand_start and
// $rand_stop then
echo $dir[$rand-$rand_start]; // will print either left or right
//randomly

i'm sure there's a more elegant approach, but this will
allow you to generate a random number and print a random
direction

[MrAlaska]

It has already been mentioned, but to elaborate it is common to determine odd or even with the MOD operator (represented by % in PHP), which returns the remainder of one number divided by another. The result of any number divided by 2 is either 1 or 0 so ($num % 2) will always result in 1 or 0.

(num % 2) means (the remainder of num / 2)

I cannot figure out the details of what you are trying to accomplish, but to build seperate arrays filled with respectively odd or even numbers and maintain the initial values you could approach it something like this.. I think...

<?php
if ($num % 2 == 1){
	$LEFT[]=$num;
} else $RIGHT[]=$num;
?>