[Resolved] String Containing A Number

[Dragonfist07]

Is there a function to check if a string contains an integer?

I know strpos() can check for a single #. But i need it to check for numbers 0-9 and don't feel like writing strpos() for each #.

[bretticus]

Check if the string is numeric or check for the existance of an integer (or more than one) in a given string?

[bretticus]

Ah, i think i know what you are after so I'll just answer the question.

If you want to look for number(s) in a string, this should work:

if (ereg("[0-9]", $string)) {//...Do your thing}

[Dragonfist07]

I was pretty much generating a random string that could be composed of letters and #s. But of course some instances output only letters, so I wanted to check if the outputted string contained a #, and if it didn't generate a random string again etc.

[Dragonfist07]

function forgot_pass() 
	{
	global $chars, $i, $pass, $num, $tmp;

$chars = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789";
srand((double)microtime()*1000000);
$i = 0;
$pass = '' ;



while ($i <= 7) 
	{
    	$num = rand() % 33;
    	$tmp = substr($chars, $num, 1); 
    	$pass = $pass . $tmp;
   	$i++;
	}

if (ereg('[0-9]', $pass))
		{
			return $pass;
		}
	else
		{
			forgot_pass();
		}
}

Here is the function I was working on. It seemed to be working perfectly fine. Tried it about 8 times and each string had a # in it. On the 9th try there was no result. So I kept trying again, and every 4th or 5th try I'd do, I would get no value once again. Can't seem to figure out why that is though.

[bretticus]

The blank one happens when the check fails and the function calls itself again.

BTW preg_match('/[0-9]/', $pass) is much faster than ereg.

My theory is that the function has nothing to return once it falls into a deeper recursive level. This theory seems true based on my rewrite of your code that works:

function forgot_pass() 
{
	global $chars, $i, $pass, $num, $tmp;

$chars = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789";
srand((double)microtime()*1000000);
$i = 0;
$pass = '' ;

while ($i <= 7) 
{
	$num = rand() % 33;		
	$tmp = substr($chars, $num, 1);		
	$pass .=  $tmp;
   $i++;
}

if (preg_match('/[0-9]/', $pass))
{			
	return($pass);
}
else
{		
	return forgot_pass();
}
}

[Dragonfist07]

Thank you for your help. Everything works perfectly fine now. All that's left is for me to fully understand the changes you made.

From: $pass = $pass . $tmp;

To: $pass .= $tmp;

Is pretty much the only thing I don't get.

[bretticus]

Oh sorry,

That was an anal change and not crucial to the outcome. Both result in the same thing. In fact, the only crucial step was using a return on the recursive call in order to "bubble" out the final result.

When I began Web development, it was using ASP and VBScript. I got used to writing stuff like:

$pass = $pass . $tmp;

which is fine. However, you can write less code if you use the "append" style:

$pass .= $tmp;

just means whatever $pass is, just append $tmp. There are similiar operators for numbers:

$subtotal += $itemPrice;

or take the current subtotal and add the current item price to it.

Cheers!