PHP zodiac script help needed

aidoDel · November 25, 2009

Hi I'm trying to build an application where a user enters their birthday into a HTML form and it gets processed by php to return their starsign. I am a complete newbie to php and I'm getting stuck with some simple logic. Any help would be great.

My HTML FORM IS:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <title>Smart Forms JS</title>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="js/smartform.js"</script>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/style.css" />
</head>
<body>
<h2 align="center">What your future holds</h2>
<div id="form-area">
<!--<form action="users_details.php" method="post">-->
    <form action="new2.php" method="post">
    <fieldset>
    <legend>Your Personal Details</legend>
                
        <p>
            Please enter your date of birth: <br />
                <label for="user_day">Day:<input name="user_day" id="user_day" type="text" size="2" class="reqd" maxlength="2" onkeypress="return isNumberKey(event)"></label>
                <label for="user_month">Month:
                    <select name="user_month"  id="user_month" class="reqd">
                            <option value="" selected="selected">Choose a month</option>
                            <option value="January">January</option>
                            <option value="February">February</option>
                            <option value="March">March</option>
                            <option value="April">April</option>
                            <option value="May">May</option>
                            <option value="June">June</option>
                            <option value="July">July</option>
                            <option value="August">August</option>
                            <option value="September">September</option>
                            <option value="October">October</option>
                            <option value="November">November</option>
                            <option value="December">December</option>
                    </select>
                </label>
                <label for="user_year">Year:<input name="user_year" id="user_year" type="text" size="4" class="reqd" maxlength="4" onkeypress="return isNumberKey(event)" ></label>
        </p>
                
<p>

            <input name="submit" type="submit" />
            <input name="reset" type="reset" />
        </p>
    
    </fieldset>
</form>
</div>
</body>
</html>

AND SO FAR MY PHP IS:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <title>Processed Form</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/style.css" />
</head>
<body>

<div id="wrapper">
    <h2>Processed Form from Birthday Page</h2>

<?php
$starsign[0] = array('name'=>'Capricorn', 'description' =>'description of capricorn people');
$starsign[1] = array('name'=>'Aquarius', 'description' =>'description of aquarius people');
$starsign[2] = array('name'=>'Pisces', 'description' =>'description of Pisces people');
$starsign[3] = array('name'=>'Aries', 'description' =>'description of aries people');
$starsign[4] = array('name'=>'Taurus', 'description' =>'description of Taurus people');
$starsign[5] = array('name'=>'Gemini', 'description' =>'description of Gemini people');
$starsign[6] = array('name'=>'Cancer', 'description' =>'description of Cancer people');
$starsign[7] = array('name'=>'Leo', 'description' =>'description of Leo people');
$starsign[8] = array('name'=>'Virgo', 'description' =>'description of Virgo people');
$starsign[9] = array('name'=>'Libra', 'description' =>'description of Libra people');
$starsign[10] = array('name'=>'Scorpio', 'description' =>'description of Scorpio people');
$starsign[11] = array('name'=>'Sagittarius', 'description' =>'description of Sagittarius people');


$month = $_POST['user_month'];
$day = $_POST['user_day'];
$year = $_POST['user_year'];


$user_starsign = $starsign[$group]['name'];
$description = $starsign[$group]['description'];



function star_sign($month, $day, $year) {
   $time = mktime(0, 0, 0, $month, $day, $year); //return the Unix timestamp
   $day_of_year = date("z", $time);  // "z" is equal to  the day of the year 0 to 365

   if (date("L", $time) && ($day_of_year > 59)) // for leap years "L" is LEAP YEAR
      $day_of_year -= 1; // if it is FEB 29 (59) Subtract 1 from the day of year


   switch ($day_of_year) {
      case $day_of_year > 356: // above 22nd Dec = Capricorn
         return "Capricorn";
      case $day_of_year > 326:
         return "Sagittarius";
      case $day_of_year > 296:
         return "Scorpio";
      case $day_of_year > 266:
         return "Libra";
      case $day_of_year > 235:
         return "Virgo";
      case $day_of_year > 203:
         return "Leo";
      case $day_of_year > 172:
         return "Cancer";
      case $day_of_year > 140:
         return "Gemini";
      case $day_of_year > 111:
         return "Taurus";
      case $day_of_year > 78:
         return "Aries";
      case $day_of_year > 51:
         return "Pisces";
      case $day_of_year > 20:
         return "Aquarius";
      default:
         return "Capricorn";
   }

}

    echo "Your star sign is " . star_sign($month, $day, $year);
?>
</div>

My first major problem is that the php only ever returns the first case of function star_sign which is "Capricorn" irrespective of what date is entered.

My second problem is that I don't what to return a string in the function, I want it to return the related sub array.

eg Rather than RETURN "Capricorn" I want it to RETURN $starsign[0]. What you be the correct syntax to do this so I could later echo the users starsign and details related to that star sign?

cags · November 25, 2009

On your form, change the value attributes of the month option elements to the numeric value of the month rather than a text description of the month, it should then return the correct star sign. As for your second question, if you wished to return a sub array, you would really need to define the array inside the function, which your not currently doing. Either way I'd recommend changing the structure of your array to...

$starsign['Capricorn'] = array('name'=>'Capricorn', 'description' =>'description of capricorn people');
$starsign['Aquarius'] = array('name'=>'Aquarius', 'description' =>'description of aquarius people');
$starsign['Pisces'] = array('name'=>'Pisces', 'description' =>'description of Pisces people');
...
// etc

If you moved the array inside you can then simply return $starsign['Capricorn']. If you didn't move it inside you can just return the string as you are now and use $starsign[$return_value] to access the information.

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PHP zodiac script help needed

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