randomizing question

[Henri]

hello everyone, I have this script and have a little problem. well, 2 actually. the first is that instead of echoing the whole quote, it only echoes the first letter. and it does'nt pick a random quote, just the last database entry.

this is the code:

$db_name = "$mysql_database"; 
$linkid = mysql_connect("$mysql_host", "$mysql_username", "$mysql_password");
mysql_select_db($db_name, $linkid);

$query = mysql_query("SELECT quote FROM phpd_quotes", $linkid);

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {
$array = $row['quote'];
}

mysql_close($linkid);

$random_quote = $array['rand(0, count($array)'];

echo "$random_quote";

any help to correct this would be great.

thanx

[shawon22]

in side the while loop i think u need to use $array[] not $array

$db_name = "$mysql_database"; 
$linkid = mysql_connect("$mysql_host", "$mysql_username", "$mysql_password");
mysql_select_db($db_name, $linkid);

$query = mysql_query("SELECT quote FROM phpd_quotes", $linkid);

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {
$array[] = $row['quote'];
}

mysql_close($linkid);

$random_quote = $array['rand(0, count($array)'];

echo "$random_quote";

[Henri]

that but the only thing that changed is that instead of having the first letter of a quote displayed, nothing is displayed.

anyone else know what I could do?

thanx

[Weedpacket]

What you could do is first "SELECT COUNT(*) ..." to find out how many quotes there are.

Then pick a random number in the range 0 .. (that number - 1).

Then SELECT a row as you're doing, with the added clause "LIMIT random number,1".

[Henri]

well I changed the code to this:

$db_name = "$mysql_database"; 
$linkid = mysql_connect("$mysql_host", "$mysql_username", "$mysql_password");
mysql_select_db($db_name, $linkid);


$max = mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM phpd_quotes", $linkid);

$query = mysql_query("SELECT quote FROM phpd_quotes", $linkid);

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {
$array = $row['quote'];
}

mysql_close($linkid);

$random_quote = $array['rand(0, $max - 1'];

and nothing changed at all🙁

[Henri]

bump:p

[Weedpacket]

Right, you did step one out of three... maybe if instead of going "bump" you did the other two...?

...and notice the use of the word "Then".

[Henri]

okay well I'm getting this error:

Warning: rand() expects parameter 2 to be long, resource given in /home/ness/public_html/php/PHPD.randomquote/demo/quote.php on line 22

The line with the rand() funtion is this:

$numrows = mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM phpd_quotes", $linkid);

$max = rand(1, $numrows);

the thing is that I only have 2 quotes in the database...

[Weedpacket]

Well, as you know, mysql_query returns a MySQL resultset resource. You're going to have to do the same thing to that that you always do to get the data out of any MySQL resultset resource. I.e., mysql_fetch_array() or something.

easiest would be
list($count) = mysql_fetch_row($numrows);

And then use rand(0,$count-1); (0..count-1 because you're using it as an offset, in other words, the rows are numbered starting from 0).

[Henri]

thanx so much, it works now

I'm just going to take a quick look at the php functions to actually know what list() means🙂