[RESOLVED] choiceing loop type!

[spiritssight]

Hello there,

I don't know what kind of loop I should use for this:

create id
check to see if exist
if exist create another id
once id created that does not match one thats in the database then continual

I have the code to check if exist and to create the id I just am not sure which would be better to use for the loop

any help would be grateful!

Sincerely,
Christopher

[NogDog]

One option:

$start = time(); // use to time out if takes too long
$found == false;
while($start + 10 < time()) // don't try for more than 10 seconds
{
   // do your stuff.
   if($some_condition == true)
   {
      $found = true;
      break;   // exit the loop
   }
}
if(!$found)
{
   // die() or something here due to loop timing out
}
// rest of script....

[spiritssight]

Hello NogDog and others,

I have tried this thing by doing:

if(isset($_POST['create']))
{
$i = 0;
	while ($i == 0)
	{
	$user_id = sprintf("%'09d", mt_rand(1, 999999999));
	$user_id = "P-".$user_id;
	echo $user_id;

$query_s = "SELECT user_id FROM access_credentials WHERE user_id = '$user_id'";
$result_s = mysql_query($query_s) OR die("Sorry, unable to select record: " . mysql_error());
$count = mysql_num_rows($result_s);
	if($count == 1)
	{
	$i = 1;
	}
}

$query_i = "INSERT INTO user_info (user_id, f_name, m_inital, l_name, email_address) VALUES ('$user_id', '$_POST['f_name']','$_POST['m_inital']','$_POST['l_name']','$_POST['email_address']')";
$result_i = mysql_query($query_i) OR die("Sorry was unable to insert ".$fin." into the database table allowed! <br />" . mysql_error());
$count = mysql_affected_rows();

$query_i = "INSERT INTO access_credentials (user_id, user_password, user_access_level) VALUES ('$user_id', '$_POST['user_password']','0')";
$result_i = mysql_query($query_i) OR die("Sorry was unable to insert ".$fin." into the database table allowed! <br />" . mysql_error());
$count = mysql_affected_rows();
	if($count)
	{
	echo "Account Created";
	}

}

does this make any sence? also I am getting the following error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_ENCAPSED_AND_WHITESPACE, expecting T_STRING or T_VARIABLE or T_NUM_STRING in /home/dev/www/create_account.php on line 38

I have search the internet and I seem not to be able to figure it out, any help would be greatly appericated

Sincerely,
Christopher

[NogDog]

You cannot use quoted array keys for an array variable within a double-quoted string. You either need to wrap the entire variable in curly braces, or leave out the quotes (which is confusing because doing so is considered an error when not withing double quotes :rolleyes🙂.

    $query_i = "INSERT INTO user_info (user_id, f_name, m_inital, l_name, email_address) 
VALUES ('$user_id', '{$_POST['f_name']}','{$_POST['m_inital']}','{$_POST['l_name']}',
'{$_POST['email_address']}')";

(You'll run into the same problem a few lines down from that one.)

[spiritssight]

does this mean I have to take out the ' or does it mean change them from ' to "?

[NogDog]

Either use the curly brace "complex variable notation" that I used in the example in my last reply, or remove the quotes around the array variable indexes, or else use concatenation:

// these are all valid:
echo "<p>This is {$a['test']}.</p>\n";  // complex notation
echo "<p>This is $a[test].</p>\n";    // no array index quotes
echo "<p>This is " . $a['test'] . ".</p>\n";  // concatenation
printf("<p>This is %s.</p>\n", $a['test']);  // printf()/sprintf()

[spiritssight]

Ok, I got it to work with out a error, but now it keeps the loop going and going etc etc .....

why is this?

my code is:

if(isset($_POST['create']))
{
$i = 0;
	while ($i == 0)
	{
	include '/home/dev/www/lib/db_config_cr-dev.php';
	include '/home/dev/www/lib/db_conn-select.php';
	$user_id = sprintf("%'09d", mt_rand(1, 999999999));
	$user_id = "P-".$user_id;
	echo $user_id;

$query_s = "SELECT user_id FROM access_credentials WHERE user_id = '$user_id'";
$result_s = mysql_query($query_s) OR die("Sorry, unable to select record: " . mysql_error());
$count = mysql_num_rows($result_s);
	if($count == 1)
	{
	$i = 1;
	}
}

$query_i = "INSERT INTO user_info (user_id, f_name, m_inital, l_name, email_address) VALUES ('$user_id', '$_POST[f_name]','$_POST[m_inital]','$_POST[l_name]','$_POST[email_address]')";
$result_i = mysql_query($query_i) OR die("Sorry was unable to insert ".$fin." into the database table allowed! <br />" . mysql_error());
$count = mysql_affected_rows();

$query_i = "INSERT INTO access_credentials (user_id, user_password, user_access_level) VALUES ('$user_id', '$_POST[user_password]','0')";
$result_i = mysql_query($query_i) OR die("Sorry was unable to insert ".$fin." into the database table allowed! <br />" . mysql_error());
$count = mysql_affected_rows();
	if($count)
	{
	echo "Account Created";
	}

}

am I on the right path with the way I am doing this or do I have it really off?

Sincerely,
Christopher

[Weedpacket]

I'd use a do...while loop. You need to do something at least once, and keep doing it while it's necessary.

do
{
//...don't forget to move those include statements out of the loop
// unless you really do want them to be run every single time.
// Judging from the file names I'd guess not.
$user_id = ...etc.
$query_s = ...
$result_s = ...
} while(mysql_num_rows($result_s)!=0);

And if you are going to use $i, then it would be clearer to call it something else ($i is conventionally used as a counter), and to use true and false instead of 1 and 0. "$found" would be a nice descriptive name.

[spiritssight]

Thanks Weedpacket!

That did it, that made it work the way I thought it should, I just could not figure out how to do it and I did not think about the do loop as I don't understand the diffences between the different loops, is there a good read I can learn about the different loops?

Sincerely,
Christopher

[Weedpacket]

Pretty much all procedural programming languages (especially those that descended/borrowed from C; C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, PHP...) have pretty much the same control structures - typically even using the same syntax (a for() or a do..while() looks exactly the same in all seven languages). PHP's definitive reference is the [man]control structures[/man] section.