shrinking my script

WebDesEyen

i am putting something together that does some minor calculating, it basically adds numbers from columns of text fields, it multiplies them in rows, and in the end it also devided the numbers into a floating point result.

the thing is, i am at only one third of my script, and it is getting massive.

i am positive that there is an easier way to do this, but i just don't know how. i would really appreciate it if one of the pro people here can have a look at it and change it for me so that i can see how to make it smaller...

since there are some long lines in it i attached it and didn't put it inline.

thank you very much!

drawmack

put the _POST indecies into an array and then use a loop to navigate through them.

You could have the array auto-populated with a loop as well.

WebDesEyen

uhm... there is a reason this is in the newbies section...
unfortunately i don't have a clue (yet) what you are talking about, sorry...

drawmack

I'll do up an example later

WebDesEyen

thank you in advance!!!

drawmack

okay this code will fill the array with the post indecies and perform the processing you have at the top of your code. Generating the form I leave to you.

<?php
//setup the loop control variables 
//the ascii code of the character to start with
$start_letter = ord('a'); 
//the number of letters in the first position (i.e. a - ??)
$first_char_lets = 26; 
//the number of letters in the second position (i.e. a - ??)
$second_char_lets = 26; 
//the number of sets of variables of the form aa#
$rows = 7; 

$vars = array();

//build an array that contains entries of the form aa1 
//using the variables from above
for($i=0;$i<$first_char_lets;$i++) {
    for($j=0;$j<$second_char_lets;$j++) {
        for($k=0;$k<$rows;$k++) {
            $vars[] = chr($start_letter+$i) . chr($start_letter+$j) . $k;
        } //end for k
    }  //end for j
}  //end for i

//generate the totals
$totalgrade = 0;
$totalcredits = 0;
$totalscore = 0;
for($i=0;$i<$second_char_lets;$i++) {
    $totalgrade += $_POST[$vars[($i*$rows)+1]];
    $totalcredits += $_POST[$vars[($i*$rows)+2]];
    $totalscore += ($_POST[$vars[($i*$rows)+1]] * $_POST[$vars[($i*$rows)+2]]);
}   //end for
?>

WebDesEyen

bowing down in utter admiration and eternal gratitude. no more server time outs.

thank you VERY much!

drawmack

If you're getting timeouts with the script, it's probably on the form generation, a little creative use of http://www.php.net/flush will solve that problem. You'll have to play with the placement of the call. You want them as rarely as possible in your output.