Strange behavior with random selection

rogair

The below code is behaving really strange. It is only returning the first character from fld1 when the results set is more than 1. If I set limit 1 then the first condition is met and it works fine. If it's greater than one the second condition runs, but it only returns the first character of fld1. Fld2 and fld3 work fine. I'm really confused. See anything I'm missing?

Thanks

$pickstr= mysql_query("select fld1, fld2, fld3 from table",$db);
if ($res = mysql_fetch_row($pickstr)) {
$ofn=mysql_num_rows($pickstr);
srand ((float) microtime() * 1000000);
	if($ofn==1) {
		do {
		$title=$res[0];	
		$num=$res[1];
		$per=$res[2];
		echo "<a href=\"/pages/cd$num\"><img src=\"/music/albums/covers/mc$num\" border=\"0\" alt=\"$title - $per\"></a><br>\n";
		echo "<a href=\"/pages/cd$num\">$title</a> - $per<br><br><br>\n";
		}
		while ($cds = mysql_fetch_row($pickstr));
	}
	else {
	$i=0;
		do {
		$title[$i]=$res[0];	
		$cdnum[$i]=$res[1];
		$per[$i]=$res[2];
		$i++;
		}
		while ($cds = mysql_fetch_row($pickstr));
	$pick=rand(0,$ofn-1);
	echo "<a href=\"/pages/cd$num[$pick]\"><img src=\"/music/albums/covers/mc$num[$pick]\" border=\"0\" alt=\"$title[$pick] - $per[$pick]\"></a><br>\n";
	echo "<a href=\"/pages/cd$num[$pick]\">$title[$pick]</a> - $per[$pick]<br><br><br>\n";
	}

Mordecai

Please put your code between [php] and [/php] tags, so it's easier to read.

I didn't really look over your code (looking at unformatted code makes my eyes hurt), but why don't you just pick a random number from the MySQL db using MySQL's RAND()?

rogair

I'm running 3.22. It's a production server and I can't easily upgrade with all of the stuff running on it. I'm really frustrated about this because I have nearly identical (yet more complex) code working elsewhere on the site. I'm quite stumped. Urgh.

Sorry about the php. Forgot to put the tags in.

laserlight

Sorry, I was trying to debug, but then I realized I dont quite get your logic.

Could you post some pseudocode and/or further explanation?

If not I'll just continue with what I think you want.

laserlight

$pickstr = mysql_query("select fld1, fld2, fld3 from table",$db);
$ofn = mysql_num_rows($pickstr);
if ($ofn > 0) {
	//begin looping through the result set
	$i = 0;
	while ($res = mysql_fetch_row($pickstr)) {
		$title[$i] = $res[0];
		$cdnum[$i] = $res[1];
		$per[$i] = $res[2];
		$i++;
	}
	//seed the pseudorandom number generator
	srand((float)microtime() * 1000000);
	$pick = rand(0, $ofn - 1); //rand(0, 0) hopefully works for $ofn = 1
	//now echo the links as needed
}

rogair

Ok, this is just freaky. I decided to just drop in your approach (and yes it is what I am trying to do. (My if ofn=1 check was actually left over from other code where it was necessary).

Anyway with the above code, yet again title is getting set to only the first character of the data that is in the database. Otherwise it's working properly. This is exactly the result I get with my original code. Anyone have a clue what could be causing this? It's just odd.

Thanks.