need array to pop. hours (5:30pm) in dropdwn

ATS16805

Now that I finally got over the obstacle of my Date Entry Form, i'm ready to start on my "Time Entry Form". What i'm hoping someone will help me with is really quite simple-- and if you test my existing input form, you'll see that i already have the properly functioning "template" for it setup-- but i need it to do two critical things, both of which i'm unsure.

1) i need a way to populate an HTML select/option dropdownlist with TIME strings. (eg 5:00 > 5:30 > 6:00 > 6:30 > etc) or (eg. 5:00 pm > 5:30 pm > etc)
2) i need to then convert the $_POST data from that time string dropdown into a format so that I can add them as the ( [int hour [, int minute [, int second ) of my existing mktime() function, which you'll see how i'm using it if you look at the link above and enter a valid date. (try an invalid date too!)

so, that's it. i just need to know how do i get those time values to loop themselves through an array to automatically populate that dropdown as i'm doing w/ the existing variables, and then a tip on how to turn them into the values that i need for mktime() to do its job properly.

(aside)
I realize you're probably thinking i'm pretty dimly lit over here, but the thing is-- i've sort of painted myself into a corner by developing this Event Scheduler as i went along, fixing the db here and there-- till i finally got it to what i think will work. i have actually started over with nothing but a clean table structure and an idea of what php files i'll need, but i'm still working from my old framework because my DB is setup for this app structure-- and i figure to use my existing site-map, timewise, is my best bet at this point. i've learned a lot throughout this whole process-- heck, i practically learned evey bit of real-world php/ mysql through building this app, so i'm pleased about that. i just wanted to give that little disclaimer. thanks for reading, and profuse thanks to everyone who's lended their advice, or de-bugged my code along the way!

w/out the help of the knowledgeable, generous folks at PHPBuilder.com, i'd probably still be trying to figure out how to use mysql_query() or something much less complex than turning strings into timestamps!

bpat1434

You could always do this:

<?php

$hours = 24;
$min_sec = 60;

$hour = '<select name="hour">';
for($i=0; $i<=$hours; $i++){
    $hour .= '<option value="'.$i.'">'.date('H (a)', mktime($i,0,0,1,1,2000)).'</option>';
}
$hour .= '</select>';

$min = '<select name="min">';
for($i=0; $i<=$min_sec; $i++){
    $min .= '<option value="'.$i.'">'.date('i', mktime(0,$i,0,1,1,2000)).'</option>';
}
$min .= '</select>';

$sec = '<select name="seconds">';
for($i=0; $i<=$min_sec; $i++){
    $sec .= '<option value="'.$i.'">'.date('s', mktime(0,0,$i,1,1,2000)).'</option>';
}
$sec .= '</select>';

?>

<form>
<!-- other form stuff -->
<?php echo $hour.':'.$min.':'.$sec; ?>
</form>

Or, you could use 2 small functions:

<?php
function check($num){
    // To check the seconds & minutes numbers to make them
    // 01, 02, 04 rather than 0, 1, 2
    if($num<10 && strlen($num)<2){
        $num = '0'.$num;
    }
    return $num;
}

function populate($name, $max){
    switch($name){
        // Set our hour, min & sec variables for the mktime() function
        case 'hours':
            $sec = $min = 0;
            $format = 'H [a]';
            break;
        case 'min':
            $sec = $hour = 0;
            $format = 'i';
            break;
        case 'sec':
            $min = $hour = 0;
            $format = 's';
            break;
    }

$out = '<select name="'.$name.'">';
for($i=0; $i<=$max; $i++){
    // Set var to $i if we're in it...
    $hour = ($name == 'hour')?$i:$hour;
    $min = ($name == 'min')?$i:$min;
    $sec = ($name == 'sec')?$i:$sec;

    $out .= '<option value="'.check($i).'">'.date($format, mktime(check($hour), check($min), check($sec), 1,1,2000)).'</option>';
}
$out .= '</select>';
return $out;
}

?>
<form name="time" action="" method="POST">
<!-- Your other form stuff -->
Choose a time:<br>
<?php echo populate('hour', 24).' : '.populate('min', 60).' : '.populate('sec', 60); ?>
</form>

~Brett

ATS16805

Hey-- Thanks, Brett!!! this is awesome.

my first thought when looking at your reply is...

geez... i can't believe i didn't think of your first solution there-- w/ the $hours = 24;
$min_sec = 60; bit in it. ugh! well, you do go on to perform some stuff that i wouldn't have thought of, but the very idea of setting the variables to 24 and 60... i should have tried something like that. i kept trying to get strtotime()to do something for me, but w/out much luck. i haven't tried any of this yet, but i'm eager to get going w/ it-- i'll come back and report which fit best into my little system.

thank you so much-- this is really awesome of you. there's so much more for me to take from this than just the "practical functionality" of it. i'll have fun examining what each little thing is doing here.

bpat1434

Glad to hear I could help.

~Brett

ATS16805

bpat1434,

your first solution works perfectly!! woohoo!

the second solution, although i understand it less thoroughly, it appears as if it would also work equally as well, and perform identically to the first, but i'm getting the Notices: Undefined variable~~: min; sec; and format [separately, of course], and also the hour dropdown is blank-- i thought it was because of~~

case 'hours':
            $sec = $min = 0;
            $format = 'H [a]';
            break;

yet the for() loop shows

for($i=0; $i<=$max; $i++){
        // Set var to $i if we're in it...
        $hour = ($name == 'hour')?$i:$hour;

notice 'hour' vs 'hours' , but i made them equal, and the hour dropdown is still empty. i don't know enough of what's going on to debug further than that.

i can definitely use your first solution, but i think i could learn something worthwhile if you (or anyone else) care to discuss what's going on in this second solution, and why the hour dropdown might be blank.

thanks again!!

bpat1434

Woops... sorry about that, was doing it in a rush.

<?php
function check($num){
    // To check the seconds & minutes numbers to make them
    // 01, 02, 04 rather than 0, 1, 2
    if($num<10 && strlen($num)<2){
        $num = '0'.$num;
    }
    return $num;
}

function populate($name, $max){
    switch($name){
        // Set our hour, min & sec variables for the mktime() function
        case 'hour':
            $sec = $min = 0;
            $format = 'g [a]';
            break;
        case 'min':
            $sec = $hour = 0;
            $format = 'i';
            break;
        case 'sec':
            $min = $hour = 0;
            $format = 's';
            break;
    }

$out = '<select name="'.$name.'">';
for($i=0; $i<=$max; $i++){
    // Set var to $i if we're in it...
    $hour = ($name == 'hour')?$i:$hour;
    $min = ($name == 'min')?$i:$min;
    $sec = ($name == 'sec')?$i:$sec;

    $out .= '<option value="'.check($i).'">'.date($format, mktime(check($hour), check($min), check($sec), 1,1,2000)).'</option>';
}
$out .= '</select>';
return $out;
}

?>
<form name="time" action="" method="POST">
<!-- other form elements -->
Choose a time:<br>
<?php echo populate('hour', 23).' : '.populate('min', 60).' : '.populate('sec', 60); ?>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="submitted" />
</form>

Okay, that will work. And I'll try and explain....

The first function check($num) will take the string passed to it ($num) and do two things: 1.) Check to see if it is less than 10, 2.) Check to see if the length of the string is less than 2. IF it is less than 10, and the length is less than 2, we will pre-pend a "0" so that the numbers are "00", "01", "05" instead of "0", "1", "5". It's aesthetics.

The next function, populate($name, $max), is the real worker. This takes the items passed to it and creates the drop-downs. Easy enough right? Well, we switch based upon what the value of "$name" is. If it's "hour", then we set the $min and $sec variable to 0. And the same is true for the other 2 cases. The $format variable defines how it will be shown with the date() function.

Then we start to populate the $out variable with the basic "<select name='something'>" information. Then we create a loop and add on to "$out" with each item. Each time we go through, we see what drop-down we're populating (hour, min, sec) and generate the values.

It's as easy as that. The above code is fixed, and should work perfectly.

~Brett