Echoing mixture of variables and text from a text file ?

[johnnycashpoint]

Hey PHPFreaks. I am a new guy. I need the assistance your superpowers please?

 

Here's the idea.. A user inputs a name into a form, which then gets posted.

 

They then get a random sentence returned, containing the name they posted.

 

 

 

To do this, I want to use a text file containing the sentences. (Note: the variable appears in different places)

 

Eg: (example.txt)

 

One day I went to the park with $name

One day $name went to the park with me

I saw $name at the park one day

$name and I were at the park

 

 

So, what would the code be to echo a single line at random and the variable $name to be recognized in the echo ?

 

Thanks. 

[Adam]

Perhaps something like:

 

$str = 'One day I went to the park with {name}
One day {name} went to the park with me
I saw {name} at the park one day
{name} and I were at the park';

$str = str_replace('{name}', $name, $str);

[ignace]

In your text file write:

 

One day I went to the park with %s

One day %s went to the park with me

I saw %s at the park one day

%s and I were at the park

 

In your php file write:

 

$sentences = file('path/to/text/file');
$rand = array_rand($sentences);
printf($sentences[$rand], $name);

 

[Adam]

Hah brain totally isn't in gear yet, read that completely wrong.

[ignace]

Hah brain totally isn't in gear yet, read that completely wrong.

 

Where is this server actually located? I'm from Belgium it's 1 PM and the server's time is 7 AM

[Adam]

Florida I think. Mid-day here in the UK though but I'm battling a hangover.

[ignace]

Florida I think. Mid-day here in the UK though but I'm battling a hangover.

 

I hope your winning

[trq]

Hehe, 9:30 PM here and I'm working pretty hard on a hangover ready for casual Friday at work. I do nothing but write specs/docs on Fridays, too easy.

[johnnycashpoint]

In your text file write:

 

One day I went to the park with %s

One day %s went to the park with me

I saw %s at the park one day

%s and I were at the park

 

In your php file write:

 

$sentences = file('path/to/text/file');
$rand = array_rand($sentences);
printf($sentences[$rand], $name);

 

 

That's great! The variable gets echoed!

 

The only problem is, it is echoing all the lines at the same time, instead of plucking out just 1 at random

[johnnycashpoint]

I got it!!

 

Here's how I did it.

 

{ 

for($i=9; $i>=0; $i=$i-1)

	{

	$linefile = "phptest.txt";
	$handle = fopen($linefile, "r");
	$contents = fread($handle, filesize($linefile));
	fclose($handle);
	$word1 = explode("\r", $contents);
	$line = $word1[rand(0, count($word1)-1)];

echo "<p class='res'>";
printf($line, $word);
echo "</p><br />";

}

}

[ignace]

The only problem is, it is echoing all the lines at the same time, instead of plucking out just 1 at random

 

That's not possible because i randomly select one line (as file reads a file into an array) store it in $rand and retrieve that row by using $sentences[$rand] If it would however select all rows then you would get an error from printf saying something like: too few arguments.