[Resolved] Shuffle yields same result over and over

[mrob]

I'm trying to learn about shuffling an array.
I've read a bit in the manual about shuffle and searched other posts, but haven't found anything yet relating to my problem.

If I try the example in the manual on shuffle, I seem to get almost the same result every time:

for($i=0;$i<200;$i++){
$numbers = range(1,5);
srand((float)microtime()*1000000);
shuffle($numbers);
foreach ($numbers as $number) {
    echo "$number ";
}
echo "<br>";
}

yields a list comprising of either 13452 or 21453 - no other variations. Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks for your time.
mrob

[weekender]

on a hunch... try

srand(microtime());

instead

[mrob]

Using

srand(microtime());

yields the following warning:

Warning: srand() expects parameter 1 to be long

along with the shuffled array 21453 repeated without change.

I tried

srand((float)microtime());

Which gave me 21453 repeated, no variation.

I'm also confused by the fact that srand() isn't supposed to be required anyway by php 4.2 and up. But if I leave it out altogether I get the same 21453 repeated everytime I run the script.

Any pointers?
mrob

[mrob]

ps: I am using php 4.2.3

[kovacs]

I have found that shuffle() doesn't work at all, instead I use this function:

function my_shuffle(&$array)
{
	for ($j=count($array)-1; $j>0; $j--) {
		if (($i = mt_rand(0,$j))<$j) {
			$swp=$array[$i];
			$array[$i]=$array[$j];
			$array[$j]=$swp;
		}
	}
}

[mrob]

Thanks kovacs. Works a treat! Strange that shuffle didn't though.

mrob