[SOLVED] Displaying random lines from a text file

[eMonk]

I want to display thumb links randomly from a text file in php. here's a sample link:

 

<a href="../names/samantha/" class="tip thumb"><img src="../names/samantha/thumb.jpg" width="88" height="88"><span>Samantha</span></a>

 

text file will have a max of 50 lines of so. this is a temp solution until i start playing with mysql. right now im looking for a pure php solution. how can this be done? I tried the following but get the error, "Warning: array_rand() [function.array-rand]: First argument has to be an array".

 

<?php $a=file('filename.txt'); $b=array_rand($a); print($a[$b]); ?>

[Jabop]

<?php
$image_list = file_get_contents('file.txt');
$image_list = explode("\n", $image_list);

echo $image_list[mt_rand(0, count($image_list))];
?>

[eMonk]

<?php
$image_list = file_get_contents('file.txt');

$image_list = explode("\n", $image_list);

echo array_rand($image_list);
?>

 

Warning: file_get_contents(txt) [function.file-get-contents]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory.

 

...but the file is there... any ideas?

[Jabop]

Warning: file_get_contents(txt) [function.file-get-contents]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory.

 

...but the file is there... any ideas?

 

Check my code again, I edited it. Make sure you're passing the right file.

[eMonk]

no errors now but it's only showing 1/3 lines in the text file. i have repeated the a href link in first post in the txt file 3 times. the display output should show 3 thumb links...

[Jabop]

That wouldn't work for what you need - hold on.

[JasonLewis]

Try this...

 

$contents = file("file.txt");
echo $contents[rand(0,count($contents))];

[eMonk]

thanks.. i tried my initial php code and used...

 

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

 

in the txt file and it worked. but again it only displayed one letter at a time. i want them all displayed side-by-side randomly.

[eMonk]

Try this...

 

$contents = file("file.txt");
echo $contents[rand(0,count($contents))];

 

 

displays one letter at a time. how can we display them ALL side-by-side randomly?

[eMonk]

one more thing i noticed... sometimes it doesn't show any letters at all... i don't have any blank lines in the txt file either...

[Jabop]

eMonk

<?php
$array=shuffle($array);

foreach($array as $key=>$value) {
     echo $value;
}
?>

[eMonk]

shouldn't file.txt be included in that code?

[eMonk]

found an easier way...

 

$deck = file('test.txt');
shuffle($deck);
echo implode(' ',$deck);