getting the highest value in an array

Intimidat0r

does anyone know how to get the highest value in an array of unknown length? and then how to get the second highest, third highest, fourth highest, etc.? thanks.

toplay

"highest value"? Are the values numeric?

Just rsort() it. Index 0 will be the highest, index 1 will be the second highest, etc.

Intimidat0r

okay but what if i have an associative array. im trying to make it show the top ten ranking users based on their number of points in the database and i want to show their usernames and points in a table in order from highest to lowest regarding points.

so after i connect to the db and all that my query is:

$a = mysql_query("SELECT username, points FROM users");
$user_rankings = mysql_fetch_array($a, MYSQL_ASSOC);

then how would i sort the points keeping the usernames attached to the point values intact and then print them out based on the points with the usernames next to the right point values.?

toplay

You can have MySQL do the sorting for you.

This will sort it by points from highest to lowest and return only the top ten:

$a = mysql_query("SELECT username, points FROM users ORDER BY points DESC LIMIT 10");

EDIT:

That SQL is assuming that there's one row per username. If different, then you tell us the details of how it's stored in your table.

🙂

Intimidat0r

no that's how my table's laid out. but then how would i print the usernames that correspond to the point values and also how to print the points?

toplay

Read up on some PHP and MySQL tutorials.

Here's a basic example:

// Connect to MySQL server first – You can use variables instead of these literals
$db = mysql_connect('localhost', 'username', 'password');
if (!$db) {
    echo 'Could not connect to MySQL server. <br />Error # ', mysql_errno(), ' Error msg: ', mysql_error();
    exit;
}

// Select the database you want to use – You can use a variable here too instead
if (!mysql_select_db('DBname', $db)) {   // Did selection fail?
    // Handle error
    echo 'DB Selection failed. <br />Error # ', mysql_errno(), ' Error msg: ', mysql_error();
    exit;
}

$sql = "SELECT username, points FROM users ORDER BY points DESC LIMIT 10";
$result = mysql_query($sql, $db);
if (!$result) {
    // Handle error
    echo 'Query failed. SQL: ', $sql, '<br />Error # ', mysql_errno(), ' Error msg: ', mysql_error();
    exit;
}

$cnt = (int) 0;

// The while loop stops when there's no data left; it might not even go in loop
// and echo anything when there's no data returned on the first call to
// mysql_fetch_assoc()
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {  // Retrieve data until no more
    echo 'Username: ', $row['username'], ' has ', $row['points'], '<br />';
    $cnt++;
}

if (0 == $cnt)
    echo 'No data found <br />';

Intimidat0r

ah thanks so much (as you can tell, i am not as great with php as other languages)