While Loop Issues

[AJinNYC]

I'm having a bit of problems with the following:

<?php
function find($initial, $goal){
$looped=0;
$string=null;
$hold=$goal;
	while($hold >= $initial){
		if(sqrt($hold) % 1 == 0){
			$hold=sqrt($hold);
			$string.=' square ';
		}
		else{
			$hold=$hold-1;
			$string.=' increment ';
		}
	$looped=$looped++;
	}
	return $looped.':'.$string;
}

echo find(1,100);
?>

This should be printing out 5: square increment square increment increment (The part of the string after the colon will ultimately be flipped around, just haven't done that yet).

 

But I'm just getting a never ending loop that ultimately leads to a memory crash of PHP. 

[AJinNYC]

Just realized this:

$looped=$looped++;

Should be this:

$looped++;

And I should get rid of the equals sign in the while loop. However, it's still not returning what I'm expecting. This is the current result:

55: square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square square

Edited April 14, 2015 by AJinNYC

[requinix]

if(sqrt($hold) % 1 == 0){

It's not safe to use modulus with non-integer numbers. Try something more like

if(floor(sqrt($hold)) == ceil(sqrt($hold))){

[edit] But you have another problem: sqrt(1) == 1. Edited April 15, 2015 by requinix

[AJinNYC]

if(sqrt($hold) % 1 == 0){

It's not safe to use modulus with non-integer numbers. Try something more like

if(floor(sqrt($hold)) == ceil(sqrt($hold))){

[edit] But you have another problem: sqrt(1) == 1.

 

 

That definitely helped. This seems to work:

<?php
function find($initial, $goal){
$looped=0;
$string=null;
$hold=$goal;
if($initial==0 || $goal==0){
return false;
}
	while($hold > $initial){
	$sqrt=sqrt($hold);
		if(floor($sqrt) == ceil($sqrt)){
			$hold=sqrt($hold);
			$string.=' square ';
			if($sqrt==1) break;
		}
		else{
			$hold=$hold-1;
			$string.=' increment ';
		}
	$looped++;
	}
	return $looped.':'.$string;
}

echo find(1,100);
?>