Help needed with 'link picker'

[DamienRoche]

I've decided to construct a random link picker.

 

I am stuck on one stage. Just to let you know where I am.

 

I have used glob and now have the following four files in an array:

 

(1)link.txt 
(23)link.txt
(43)link.txt
(12)link.txt

///// the array is $link[0-4]

 

I have no trouble using the array. What I am having trouble with is randomly selecting 2 of those links from the array. I have done it with one...simply using:

 

$randlink = rand(0, $linknum);

 

But obviously that doesn't recognize unique entries.

 

is there a solution to this?

 

Thanks.

[F1Fan]

Select a random element of the array, then do it again with a while loop that checks if it is the same element. If it is, loop and grab another random one. Keep doing that until you have two unique ones.

[jonsjava]

quick script. I know it can be written better, but this was the fastest I could come up with.

<?php
function pick_link(){
$link[] = "http://jonsjava.com"; //hehe, a plug for my site
$link[] = "http://google.com";
$link[] = "http://php.net";
$link[] = "http://linux.org";
$link_totals = count($link) - 1;
$random_link = rand(0,$link_totals);
$random_link = $link[$random_link];
return $random_link;
}


/* Usage:
* Pretty simple, actually, just tell it to run the pick_link in a loop
*/
$count = 2;
while ($count > 0) {
$mylink = pick_link();
print "<a href='$mylink'>Link$count</a>\n";
$count--;
}

What it does is creates a function (pick_link), which looks through all the links you have, and picks a random one. You then request a link from the function in a while loop (or however you like), and it will give you a random one every time.

[GingerRobot]

If you do mean that you'd like to show more than one random link at a time, i'd do it like this:

 

$links[] = 'link one';
$links[] = 'link two';
$links[] = 'link three';
$links[] = 'link four';

function randomlinks($links,$numberoflinks){
if(count($links) < $numberoflinks){
	return false;
}
shuffle($links);
for($x=0;$x<$numberoflinks;$x++){
	echo $links[$x].'<br />';
}
}
randomlinks($links,2);

 

If you meant that you'd like to show a different link over time each time a user comes to your site, then it becomes a bit more complicated and you'll need to store what was shown in a database.

 

jonsjava: yours does not ensure all links returned are unique.

[jonsjava]

and if you want to go a step further:

<?php
$links[] = 'link one';
$links[] = 'link two';
$links[] = 'link three';
$links[] = 'link four';

function randomlinks($links,$numberoflinks=1){
if(count($links) < $numberoflinks){
	return false;
}
shuffle($links);
for($x=0;$x<$numberoflinks;$x++){
	echo $links[$x].'<br />';
}
}
randomlinks($links,2);

now, if you do randomlinks($links), it will fetch one automatically.

[DamienRoche]

Wow! thank you both for your time. Gingers worked best for what I was looking for. Thanks for pointing that out jons. Well, both are stored in my swipe file

 

Thanks!

[discomatt]

for($x=0;$x<$numberoflinks;$x++){
echo $links[$x].'<br />';
}

 

can be replaced with

 

array_slice( $links, 0, $numberoflinks );

[DamienRoche]

I've actually run into another little niggle.

 

Is it possible to put the two random links into an array? (I'm using Gingers code).

 

So I have:

 

randomlinks($links, 2);

 

But how do I put the two that were chosen into their own array?

 

Thanks for the extension matt, I'll try that.

[F1Fan]

Replace the echo with code that adds values to a new array, then return the array.

[discomatt]

Or just use array_slice

 

$links[] = 'link one';
$links[] = 'link two';
$links[] = 'link three';
$links[] = 'link four';

function randomlinks($links,$numberoflinks=1){
if(count($links) < $numberoflinks){
	return false;
}
shuffle($links);
return array_slice( $links, 0, $numberoflinks );
}
$random = randomlinks($links,2);

print_r( $random );

[DamienRoche]

Hey guys, thanks for the all the input.

 

Here's what I've gone with:

 

foreach(glob("links/(*)link.*") as $linkfile){

$links["$loop2"] = $linkfile;
echo "Link File:$linkfile<br>";

$loop2++;

}$loop2 = $loop2 -1;

shuffle($links);

echo "<br><b>Chosen Links:</b><br>$links[1]<br>$links[2]";

 

So I've kept the original array I had and simply shuffled it, yet used the same numbers.

 

I hope is isn't deprecated anytime soom..eek.

 

Much appreciate all of the advice and info. Bookmarked this so I can come back should I need to extend my script.

 

Thanks again!