Long strings

[zingbats]

Hi. I have a working script, the trouble is it takes AGES to load. The code is huge and bulky and there has got to be a better way of doing this. Any ideas on how to optamise (I cant spell lol) this?

Here is the code for your amusmement.

As you will see, it seems long, but it is easy to follow.

<?
$rand1 = rand(10,99);
$rand2 = rand(10,99);
$rand3 = rand(10,99);
//
//
//
if($north_basic != ""){
$north1 = $north_basic{0};
$north2 = $north_basic{1};
$north = $rand1;
$north .= $north1;
$north .= $rand2;
$north .= $north2;
$north .= $rand3;
} else {
}

if($east_basic != ""){
$east1 = $east_basic{0};
$east2 = $east_basic{1};
$east = $rand1;
$east .= $east1;
$east .= $rand2;
$east .= $east2;
$east .= $rand3;
} else {
}

if($south_basic != ""){
$south1 = $south_basic{0};
$south2 = $south_basic{1};
$south = $rand1;
$south .= $south1;
$south .= $rand2;
$south .= $south2;
$south .= $rand3;
} else {
}

if($west_basic != ""){
$west1 = $west_basic{0};
$west2 = $west_basic{1};
$west = $rand1;
$west .= $west1;
$west .= $rand2;
$west .= $west2;
$west .= $rand3;
} else {
}

[bubblenut]

What's it supposed to do exactly?

[zingbats]

check if the variable $direction_basic is not null, and, if it isnt null, generate a string containing the value of $direction_basic (which will be 00 two integers) and mix them in the middle of a string.

🙂

[bubblenut]

//taken from the php manual
function make_seed()
{
   list($usec, $sec) = explode(' ', microtime());
   return (float) $sec + ((float) $usec * 100000);
}

//Seed the  Mersenne Twister random number generator
//It's better than the basic rand
mt_srand(make_seed());
//generate the random numbers
$rand1=mt_rand(10,99);
$rand2=mt_rand(10,99);
$rand3=mt_rand(10,99);

//Function to put the parts of the variable together with the random numbers
function makeString($var) {
  //Make the random numbers available in the
  //local space
  global $rand1, $rand2, $rand3;
  //return the fully processed string
  return $rand1.$var{0}.$rand2.$var{1}.$rand3;
}

//doing the following bit this way
//is not really necesarry I just thought it 
//might titdy things up a little
//Make an array of all the variables you want to process
$variables=array('north_basic','east_basic','south_basic','west_basic');
//loop through the array
for($i=0;$i<count($variables);$i++) {
  //Using PCRE (see man) you can determine if the variable is exactly the form you wish it. In this case to digits.
  if(preg_match('/^[0-9]{2}$/',${$variable[$i]})) {
  //Make the string and place it in the correct variable 
  ${$variables[$i]}=makeString(${$variables[$i]});
}

HTH
Bubble

[zingbats]

cheers.

PCRE has ALWAYS confused me. I can never work out how to use it.

Thanks for the code.