[SOLVED] Store Data for Function

[ciber]

Is it possible to store information for the duration of the function, so that the script doesn't need to download an an API's XML everytime it is requesting something?

[rhodesa]

can you elaborate on the duration? do you mean for the duration of a script executing? a user's session? a specific period of time?

[ciber]

while the script is executing

[rhodesa]

why can't you just store it in a variable?

 

can you provide an example of how you are using it now, which calls the api's xml more then once?

[ciber]

i have a function which request data from the YouTube API - here is my code, perhaps this can explain why

 

 

function stats($id,$type) {
$data = getdata($id);

if ($type == '1') {
  preg_match_all( "<yt:statistics viewCount='(.*?)' favoriteCount='(.*?)'/>", 
  $data, $stat);
  $final = $stat[1][0];
}

if ($type == '2') {
  preg_match_all( "<yt:statistics viewCount='(.*?)' favoriteCount='(.*?)'/>", 
  $data, $stat);
  $final = $stat[2][0];
}

return $final;
}

 

you see, my function does 2 things, so if I need to request it again, it will then download the data again

or will it hold it .. sorry im still new to this...

[rhodesa]

have the functions stat return all the stats for that $id as an array, so your script only calls stats() once per $id.

 

function stats($id) {
  $data = getdata($id);
  $stats = array();

  //Type 1
  if(preg_match_all( "<yt:statistics viewCount='(.*?)' favoriteCount='(.*?)'/>", $data, $stat)){
    $stats[1] = $stat[1][0];
  }

  //Type 2
  if(preg_match_all( "<yt:statistics viewCount='(.*?)' favoriteCount='(.*?)'/>", $data, $stat)){
    $stats[2] = $stat[2][0];
  }

  return $stats;
}

$stats = stats(123);
print $stats[1];
print $stats[2];

 

...or you could use OOP to make this more structured...do you know OOP?

[ciber]

no ... i only started to learn this about 3 months ago, and only in the last week have I really started to go into it a lot.

I am using the "dummy" way. :| still using the manual on php.net quite a bit.

 

 

The way you have changed this now, is much simpler! Thanks!!

[rhodesa]

np...the OOP way, you would create an instance using the $id. when the instance is created, you would do the API call, and store the $data into a variable inside that instance. then, you could call functions inside that instance which would do your preg_matchs on the $data.

 

OOP sounds scary (and it kind of is), but once you learn it, it's amazing!