Randomly displaying a list of links

[Orionsbelter]

Ok so i'm wanting to create some PHP to display a list of links in a different order each time a visitor visits the page.

 

For example

list:

link 1

link 2

link 3

link 4

 

I WISH TO RANDOMISE THIS ORDER EACH TIME THE PAGE IS LOADED.

 

so the next time they visit the order may go like this:

 

Link 3

Link 2

Link 4

Link 1

 

If anyone can help i will be very thankful.

 

 

Thank you for reading.

 

[Deoctor]

i know a small code it is not of ur requirement but i think this would give u an idea

 

<? 

//set the urls 
$urls = array("http://google.com" ,"http://hotmail.com" ,"http://phpfreecode.com" ); 

//set the text links 
$text = array("Google" ,"Hotmail" ,"phpfreecode"); 
        srand(time()); 

//set the number in (rand()%3); for however many links there are 
        $random = (rand()%3); 
echo ("<a href = \"$urls[$random]\">$text[$random]</a>")."<br>"; 


?>

[jl5501]

Are the links in the page, or are they being extracted from a database?

[Wolphie]

i know a small code it is not of ur requirement but i think this would give u an idea

 

<? 

//set the urls 
$urls = array("http://google.com" ,"http://hotmail.com" ,"http://phpfreecode.com" ); 

//set the text links 
$text = array("Google" ,"Hotmail" ,"phpfreecode"); 
        srand(time()); 

//set the number in (rand()%3); for however many links there are 
        $random = (rand()%3); 
echo ("<a href = \"$urls[$random]\">$text[$random]</a>")."<br>"; 


?>

 

I don't see how that will echo all of the links?

 

Straight from PHP.net for associative arrays, keeping the key => value pairs in tact.

 

<?php
function shuffle_assoc($array) {
  $keys = array_keys($array);
  
  // Shuffle the keys
  shuffle($keys);
  
  // Re-assign each new ordered key and value pair to a new array
  foreach($keys as $key) {
    $new[$key] = $array[$key];
  }
  
  // Return the new array
  return $new;
}

// Array of websites, the URL is the key and the label is the value
$sites = array('http://www.google.com/' => 'Google', 'http://www.phpfreaks.com/' => 'PHP Freaks');

// Loop through each element in the newly ordered array
foreach (shuffle_assoc($sites) as $key => $val) {
  echo '<a href="'. $key .'">'. $val .'</a><br />';
}
?>

 

If you're getting these values from a database then it's best you use the RAND() MySQL function.

[Orionsbelter]

No they will be in the php code and not from a database, thank you to all who have replied so far

[Wolphie]

No they will be in the php code and not from a database, thank you to all who have replied so far

 

Well in that case, the code I posted before will work if the links are in an associative array. I've tried and tested it and it works fine as far as I'm aware.

[Orionsbelter]

Ok thank you for all your help i'll test it now