[RESOLVED] Can't see where I am going wrong at...

[DETerrell]

I recently became a developer for someone and so I am walking in cold on their code. The code is for a game on Facebook, and since I do not own the game, I cannot share everything about it but I will tell you what it is I am trying to do and what I have done thus far that is not working and what it is doing that it should not be. I can show you that code that I have added but I will not be able to show the entire page of code and I am sure you all can understand why. So, here it goes.

In this game, you pick 5 digits and then the computer generates 5 digits and compares them to the digits you picked. It awards based on how many digits you matched. That part is working fine. There was supposed to be an upgrade that you could "buy", for lack of a better word, that would take any incorrect digits and, based on the level of the upgrade you had "purchased", you would have a percent chance of converting those wrong digits to the right ones. Of course, the higher levels you bought, the higher percent chance you would change the digits over. What is happening is that it is changing all the incorrect digits over and that violates the laws of averages, so I am wondering what I am doing wrong here. Here is the code:

$torchPercent=$torchlevel*2; // $torchlevel is a variable from another page that is included once in this page.

function torchFire()

{

$torchWorks .=mt_rand(1,100)."--";

if($torchWorks <= $torchPercent) // The torch does change the number for the player
{

return true;

}
else{ return false;} // The torch does not change the number for the player
} // End of function

That is code at the top of the page. Here is the code that calls that function and actually does the changing of the digit and assigns the credit for the change.

if(torchFire)
{

		$correct++;

		$usrcorrect[$slot]=true;

		$torch[$slot]=true;

		$def[$slot]=$char[$x];

		}

		else{

		$usrcorrect[$slot]=false;

		$torch[$slot]=false;

		$def[$slot]=$chars[$x];
		}

This functionality is in the function where it is determined that the number is not a match and should check to see if the torch does change the number or not. Finally is the display of the numbers.

for($y=0;$y<5;$y++)

		{

			if($usrcorrect[$y]==true && $torch[$y]==false)

			{

				$output.="<span style='color:green'> ".$usernumber[$y]."</span>";

			}

			else if($usrcorrect[$y]==true && $torch[$y]==true)
			{

				$output.="<span style='color:#ff6600'> ".$usernumber[$y]."</span>";
			}

			else

			{

				$output.=" ".$usernumber[$y];

			}

		}

As far as I can tell, this part actually does work so I am assuming at this point that the problem is in the upper section where either the test is done or where the torchfire is generated.

Any help would be greatly appreciated and thank you just for taking a look.

[djjjozsi]

Hello,
let you tell me if i'm wrong, but you create a $torchpercent and $torchWorks ect... and inside a function you want to use them? If yes, lets use them as global.

in torchfire(), you create a string, and on the following lines you compare it with an integer,
its a little bit strange.

$torchPercent=$torchlevel*2;  // $torchlevel is a variable from another page that  is included once in this page.

function torchFire()
{
global $torchWorks;
global $torchPercent;
$torchWorks .=mt_rand(1,100)."--";
if($torchWorks <= $torchPercent)	// The torch does change the number for the player
...........

Hi,

jjozsi

[DETerrell]

djjjozsi;10896608 wrote:

Hello,
let you tell me if i'm wrong, but you create a $torchpercent and $torchWorks ect... and inside a function you want to use them? If yes, lets use them as global.

in torchfire(), you create a string, and on the following lines you compare it with an integer,
its a little bit strange.

$torchPercent=$torchlevel*2;  // $torchlevel is a variable from another page that  is included once in this page.

function torchFire()
{
global $torchWorks;
global $torchPercent;
$torchWorks .=mt_rand(1,100)."--";
if($torchWorks <= $torchPercent)	// The torch does change the number for the player
...........

Hi,

jjozsi

I had a teacher in school that pounded it into us that we were to stay away from globals and publics whenever possible. Also, your suggestion of comparing a string to an integer does not follow reason. You cannot compare a string to an int. However, I have been playing around with this some more since then and I have realized that the problem is in the random statement where it calculates the $torchWorks value. When I echo $torchWorks to the screen it is coming up as a null value.

Again, any help would be greatly appreciated.

[NogDog]

One problem is the if(torchfire) check, which will always be true because you are checking the value of the constant "torchfire", not the result of the function "torchfire()". To solve that problem as well as the variable scope issue described above, define the function as:

function torchFire($torchPercent)
{
   // . . .
}

Then in that if condition where you call the function, pass that parameter to it:

if(torchFire($torchPercent))
{
   // . . .
}

PS: The problem with the constant/function-name confusion would have come to light if you tested with display_errors turned on and error_reporting set to E_ALL.

[nrg_alpha]

DETerrell;10896610 wrote:

I had a teacher in school that pounded it into us that we were to stay away from globals and publics whenever possible.

I find this interesting. I'm not sure what is so bad about global variables.
There are other alternatives however:

function torchFire(&$torchWorks, &$torchPercent) 
{
$torchWorks .=mt_rand(1,100)."--"; 
if($torchWorks <= $torchPercent)    // The torch does change the number for the player 
...........

Of course, you will have to include those variables as arguments when calling your torchFire function:

torchFire($torchWorks, $torchPercent);

[NogDog]

@:

Not sure why you want to pass $torchWorks by reference to the function, as it appears to only be used within the function to hold the random number, so doesn't need to be a function parameter at all as far as I can see (unless I missed something).

[djjjozsi]

Hello,

"Also, your suggestion of comparing a string to an integer does not follow reason. "
its not a suggestion, i'm just tell you its a mistake:

this line creates a string:

$torchWorks .=mt_rand(1,100)."--";  //

And in this line your program compares a string with an integer, what is the result?

if($torchWorks <= $torchPercent) // The torch does change the number for the player
{
......

As a matter a fact, in your original code inside that function these $torchXXXXX variables do not alive.

Hello,
jjozsi.

[nrg_alpha]

NogDog;10896615 wrote:

@:

Not sure why you want to pass $torchWorks by reference to the function, as it appears to only be used within the function to hold the random number, so doesn't need to be a function parameter at all as far as I can see (unless I missed something).

I am assuming that this variable ($torchWorks) already exists and holds a value outside the function somewhere. Of course, I could be wrong (as this happens more often than not) Are you suggesting that this variable is created within the function (which could very well be the case)?

[djjjozsi]

@:

If i'm not mistaken, It makes a random string based on $torchWorks, and compared with $torchPercent
this must not just a local variable

regards,
jjozsi.

[NogDog]

nrg_alpha;10896617 wrote:

I am assuming that this variable ($torchWorks) already exists and holds a value outside the function somewhere. Of course, I could be wrong (as this happens more often than not) Are you suggesting that this variable is created within the function (which could very well be the case)?

It's defined in the very first line of the function:

function torchFire()

{

[color=blue]$torchWorks .=mt_rand(1,100)."--";[/color]

I do not see it used anywhere else nor any reason to pass it as a function parameter or declare it as global.

Regarding globals, they are "bad" for a few reasons, mainly:

• They make the function non-portable, as it depends on variables with specific names to exist in the application,

• They can cause needless problems should you decide to rename the variable somewhere else in the application, and

• They can result in difficult-to-debug errors, especially as the size of the application increases and it's not obvious where variables are being set/modified.

The first issue is probably the main offender, but the others can be causes of hours of unnecessary debugging when they come into play.

@ djjjozsi:

While I agree that the concatenation of "--" to the percent does not make sense, it actually won't matter since the comparison of an integer to a string will result in the string being converted to a number

That being said, I'd still get rid of that . "--" unless there is some (to me unknown) reason for it, as it adds apparently needless complexity to the code.

[nrg_alpha]

NogDog;10896621 wrote:

It's defined in the very first line of the function:

function torchFire()

{

[color=blue]$torchWorks .=mt_rand(1,100)."--";[/color]

I do not see it used anywhere else nor any reason to pass it as a function parameter or declare it as global.

I realise it is declared within the function.. but as the OP notes, not all the code is listed.. so I automatically assumed (and perhaps this was a mistake on my part) that the OP was trying to modify an outside variable from within the function. That variable declaration line in itself does not garantee that this is the only variable with that name elsewhere in the code (just that as is, it is a variable that is local to the function in scope). This could all be just a bad assumption on my part.

NogDog wrote:

Regarding globals, they are "bad" for a few reasons, mainly:

• They make the function non-portable, as it depends on variables with specific names to exist in the application,

• They can cause needless problems should you decide to rename the variable somewhere else in the application, and

• They can result in difficult-to-debug errors, especially as the size of the application increases and it's not obvious where variables are being set/modified.

The first issue is probably the main offender, but the others can be causes of hours of unnecessary debugging when they come into play.

Ah, that explains it. So if you need to access a variable from outside the function, passing by reference is preferable? Or does this still create the same problems?

[NogDog]

Passing by reference is OK, as it still removes the name dependency, and the function prototype makes it obvious what is going on. Personally I still avoid that over simply returning the value, allowing the calling code to decide if the return value is assigned to a new variable or instead to the same variable. Sometimes though if the function needs to return something else, then I'll use a pass-by-reference for that variable, or occasionally it just makes sense for some other reason to do so (though at that point it may be time to rethink what the function is doing and if you're trying to do too much in one function). So in order of preference I would first just pass it normally, then by reference, and then...no...really it's difficult to imagine any situation where I would use "global" instead.

[nrg_alpha]

Ok. Thanks for the heads up, Nog.
We now return you back to your regularly scheduled programming (no pun intended) 😉

[Weedpacket]

DETerrell wrote:

Also, your suggestion of comparing a string to an integer does not follow reason. You cannot compare a string to an int.

As a matter of fact you can, and djjjozsi points out a place in the code where you do. PHP will convert the values as necessary to make the types comparable. Thanks to those two hyphens getting tacked on to the end of , any integers going into the test will be converted to strings.

If, for example mt_rand() returned 6, and $torchPercent was 50 (however it managed to get that value), you'd be testing to see if the string "6--" is less than or equal to the string "50". It isn't.

Since, as pointed out in the original code, $torchPercent was never set, it would have to be created (along with a complaint from PHP about it being undefined). Since it's being compared to a string, it would be treated as "". Which is always less than any nonempty string (which $torchWorks is guaranteed to be because of those hyphens). So the test always fails, and the function always returns true.

All of which begs the question: what's with the hyphens in the first place?

[NogDog]

@:

Actually, the inverse is true. When you compare an integer to a string, the string is converted to a number:

<?php
$foo = '6--';
$bar = 50;
var_dump($foo < $bar); // outputs "(bool)true"
?>

Which still does not answer why the "--" is appended. :rolleyes:

[DETerrell]

First off, I just want to thank everyone for their input. It all was most helpful indeed.

Second, here is the sum and substance of what was happening in the code.

I had written this additional code at like 3 in the morning. That particular line was a copy and paste from elsewhere in the code where randoms were generated. While I remembered to edit the min and max of the mt_rand, I completely forgot about what the effects would be of the -- on the end. I feel like I am wearing a dunce cap now for making such a noob mistake as this.

My second noob mistake was this: While the $torchWorks was generated inside the function, the $torchpercent was not and I was not passing it into the function so it was always coming null in the test; as NogDog so correctly pointed out. He also pointed out that in my final test, I was not actually calling the function but rather an independent variable so that was another place the code was failing.

Make that 2 dunce caps that I am wearing now. 😃

Finally, to NogDog: While your PS is accurate for most coding, this code is going on Facebook and since I cannot test against their app without uploading to their servers, and since they block certain php functionality that they deem dangerous to their servers and users best interests, I could not set those functions to be of any help. It sucks but it is a fact of life.

Again, thank you all for your help and support and I hope to see you all around here again sometime. Just so you know, I have not worked on PHP in about 3 or 4 years. During that time I have been coding in the .NET framework and so I am having to remember the stuff I forgot, and that isn't easy for someone like me.

I fell in love with coding way back in high school (1979,80,81 and 82) TRS80 model 2 is what I first learned on. Any programs we wrote in the winter we could not use in the summer because the tape would expand enough that the data was unreadable. This also worked in reverse. LOL We were so excited when we got a box to kinda resemble a racecar if you were looking down at it from a balloon. Those were the days. I would not trade them for all the gold in the world but don't you dare ask me to relive them again. LOL