In need of a snippet of code

notbob

I'm wondering if someone might be able to provide me with a few lines of code to complete the following task in PHP.

I have three text files (a.txt, b.txt, c.txt), each containing text.

The script would randomly take a line of text from each file, merge them to make a phrase and hyperlink it to a url with dashes between the words. The output from the script would be vertical. Each time the script runs, the output would be different.

The script would have a variable x that could be set to say how many lines of output there would be.

Thanks for the help and I have an example below to clarify.

Contents of a.txt

this
that
what

Contents of b.txt

will be
was
is

Contents of c.txt

good
bad
funny

In the php script, x=5

An example of the output of the script which is vertical consists of 5 hyperlinks.

<a href="http://www.url.com/what-will-be-funny.shtml">what will be funny</a>
<a href="http://www.url.com/this-is-good.shtml">this is good</a>
<a href="http://www.url.com/that-is-bad.shtml">that is bad</a>
<a href="http://www.url.com/what-was-funny.shtml">what was funny</a>
<a href="http://www.url.com/that-will-be-bad.shtml">this will be bad</a>

dalecosp

Hi, bob, or rather, not bob...

Several posters here are professional programmers. Why don't you ask what they'd charge to get this 'snippet' going for you?

dalecosp

notbob

Originally posted by dalecosp
Hi, bob, or rather, not bob...

Several posters here are professional programmers. Why don't you ask what they'd charge to get this 'snippet' going for you?

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dalecosp

I guess if that is what it would take, I don't have an issue with it.

The script didn't sound complex and I thought somone might do it probono (kind of like a lawyer who might take a few cases like that )

axo

Originally posted by notbob
(kind of like a lawyer who might take a few cases like that )

lol... recently i phoned a lawyer because of an issue having to do with my job - it was a 5 minute phone call.

7 days after the phone call i received a bill - my nice lawyer charged me 500 EUR.

nice, huh?

sorry...

dalecosp

Originally posted by axo
lol... recently i phoned a lawyer because of an issue having to do with my job - it was a 5 minute phone call.

7 days after the phone call i received a bill - my nice lawyer charged me 500 EUR.

nice, huh?

sorry...

I'd LOL if I didn't feel so sorry for you. 500 euros is a chunk of change ... some months I don't clear that programming, after expenses. Your story makes the point quite well. Thanks axo...

"notbob", if you had started the script, people here would undoubtedly offer help, and perhaps 'snippets' of code, "pro bono" ... but you've just got an idea. People call me with ideas all the time ... and they are known as "clients". It'd likely take me up to half an hour, including planning, writing, etc. I don't charge much for services, and you can see why. Someone else here could whip it off in 10 minutes or less --- they likely charge more. Either way, your 'snippet' is probably just a bit much ...

Read up on PHP, start the script (I'd use file or fread, str_replace, etc.) and then come back to the forum for help.

LordShryku

Look in the manual. This seems easy enough. Look at fopen, fread, and rand.

That'll be 500 EUR, payable to LordShryku

notbob

Originally posted by dalecosp
I'd LOL if I didn't feel so sorry for you. 500 euros is a chunk of change ... some months I don't clear that programming, after expenses. Your story makes the point quite well. Thanks axo...

"notbob", if you had started the script, people here would undoubtedly offer help, and perhaps 'snippets' of code, "pro bono" ... but you've just got an idea. People call me with ideas all the time ... and they are known as "clients". It'd likely take me up to half an hour, including planning, writing, etc. I don't charge much for services, and you can see why. Someone else here could whip it off in 10 minutes or less --- they likely charge more. Either way, your 'snippet' is probably just a bit much ...

Read up on PHP, start the script (I'd use file or fread, str_replace, etc.) and then come back to the forum for help.

No problem. What would you charge to create this script for me?

notbob

You know I can understand why people want to charge money to code. Everyone is busy.

I guess I still believe in the original spirit of the net, sharing of ideas and skills. I'm not a coder so I came to a coding forum for help. Others have asked my help in my area of expertise.

Anyways, it's nice to see that some still share this same spirit. Here's some code I received and it works well.

<?php

$links = 5;

$a = file('a.txt');
$b = file('b.txt');
$c = file('c.txt');

for ($i = 0; $i < $links; $i++) {

$link = $a[rand(0, sizeof($a)-1)] . '-' . $b[rand(0, sizeof($b)-1)] . '-' . $c[rand(0, sizeof($c)-1)];
echo "<a href=\"http://www.url.com/$link.shtml\">" . str_replace('-', ' ', $link) . "</a>\r\n";

}

drawmack

notbob,
If you had come here with the script started or asked for the function names or something like that that would be one thing but asking for finished working plug and play code is what I do for a living.

sid

Originally posted by notbob
You know I can understand why people want to charge money to code. Everyone is busy.

I guess I still believe in the original spirit of the net, sharing of ideas and skills. I'm not a coder so I came to a coding forum for help. Others have asked my help in my area of expertise.

Anyways, it's nice to see that some still share this same spirit. Here's some code I received and it works well.

i think you couldve asked a bit more specifically - but all over im with you on this.

LordShryku

I'm completely not with you...

I think you need to have some sort of understanding what you are trying to accomplish, and need to have at least attempted it before you go online and ask someone to help. What you were asking for wasn't help, it was asking someone to do it for you, which is lazy. I'll bet that 99.9% of the people programming PHP are self taught. And they learned by trial and error and question.

So my suggestion is that if you don't want to try to do any scripting yourself, and you don't care to learn how to do something like this, then stick to searching the web for pre-made scripts instead of asking someone on the web to build your scripts for you.