[Resolved] db/array/count() problems

[gunhoe86]

ive got a database full of quotes which i want to display one of at random, but i'm having some troubles. heres my code:

$query = "select quote from quotes"; 
$result = mysql_query($query); 

while ($quote = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) 
{ 
$sizeofarray = count($quote)
or die("sizeofarrayerror");
echo("size $sizeofarray");

$randomnumber = mt_rand('0','$sizeofarray')
or die("randomNumberError");
echo("rand $randomnumber");

echo("$quote[$randomnumber]")
or die("quoteError"); 
} 

the above code echoes that the size of the array is 1 (when there's 9 rows in the db), which messes up the $randomnumber, which messes up the echo($quote[$randomnumber])

any ideas on what the problem could be???

~JOSH

[LordShryku]

Yeah, you're calculating the size in a loop. So it's calculating it through each iteration of the array, which at the current time, would always be 1.

[gunhoe86]

ok, that makes sense. i've taken out to loop (see code), but i still get the same error as before.

$query = "select quote from quotes"; 
$result = mysql_query($query); 

$quote = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);

$sizeofarray = count($quote)
or die("sizeofarrayerror");
echo("size $sizeofarray");

$randomnumber = mt_rand('0','$sizeofarray')
or die("randomNumberError");
echo("rand $randomnumber");

echo("$quote[$randomnumber]")
or die("quoteError"); 

it should run outside of the loop right???

[LordShryku]

Still gotta loop through the results though. Use this:

$array = array();
while($quote = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
   $array[] = $quote;
}

$sizeofarray = count($array);

Though, if you're not actually using this data for anything but a count, you should just skip fetching the results and use [man]mysql_num_rows[/man] instead.

[gunhoe86]

ok, that gets me a bit closer, but i'm getting an error with mt_rand() saying parameter 2 (which is $sizeofarray) is expected to be longer.

$query = "select quote from quotes"; 
$result = mysql_query($query); 

$array = array(); 
while($quote = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) { 
   $array[] = $quote; 
} 

$sizeofarray = count($array)
or die("sizeofarrayerror");
echo("size $sizeofarray");

$randomnumber = mt_rand('0','$sizeofarray')
or die("randomNumberError");
echo("rand $randomnumber");

echo("$quote[$randomnumber]")
or die("quoteError"); 

is there any other way of getting a random number, or is there anything wrong with this method???

[LordShryku]

Try without quotes. You're casting to literals, and it's probably not reading the variable

$randomnumber = mt_rand(0,$sizeofarray);

[gunhoe86]

well, that finally gets me a random number, but the

echo("$quote[$randomnumber]");

is still producing errors. i don't know why its not working.

thanks for all your help

~JOSH

[LordShryku]

I'd like to think all of this random number generation in php could more easily be done in the sql. If you want to just display one random record, try this:

$query = "SELECT quote 
            FROM quotes
        ORDER BY rand()
           LIMIT 1";

Then it'll just randomly select one from the database. All you have to do is fetch it.

[gunhoe86]

this should work right? it just echoes a 1

$query = "SELECT quote FROM quotes ORDER BY rand() LIMIT 1";
$result = mysql_query($query); 

while ($quote = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
echo($quote['quote'])
or die("quoteError"); 
}

~JOSH

[LordShryku]

No need to loop, since you're only getting one. Try mysql_fetch_row

$query = "SELECT quote FROM quotes ORDER BY rand() LIMIT 1";
$result = mysql_query($query); 
$row = mysql_fetch_row($result);
echo $row[0];

[gunhoe86]

alright!!!!

that worked

i thought i'd tried mysql_fetch_row before but maybe i didnt

thanks a ton

this board rocks

~JOSH

[LordShryku]

Hey, no problem. This board helped me when I first started learning, and look at me, I almost sound like I know what I'm talking about 😃