Getting a random object from an array in PHP

Question

First and foremost, forgive me if my language is off - I'm still learning how to both speak and write in programming languages. How I can retrieve an entire object from an array in PHP when that array has several key, value pairs?

<?php

  $quotes = array();
  $quotes[0] = array(
    "quote" => "This is a great quote",
    "attribution" => "Benjamin Franklin"
  );
  $quotes[1] = array(
    "quote" => "This here is a really good quote",
    "attribution" => "Theodore Roosevelt"
  );

function get_random_quote($quote_id, $quote) {

  $output = "";
  $output = '<h1>' . $quote["quote"] . '.</h1>';
  $output .= '<p>' . $quote["attribution"] . '</p>';

  return $output;
} ?>

<?php 
  foreach($quotes as $quote_id => $quote) {
  echo get_random_quote($quote_id, $quote); 
} ?>

Using array_rand and var_dump I'm able to view the item in the browser in raw form, but I'm unable to actually figure out how to get each element to display in HTML.

$quote = $quotes;
$random_quote = array_rand($quote);
var_dump($quote[$random_quote]);

Thanks in advance for any help!

The preferred output would be to display one quote at random. — jayjo
– jayjo, Commented Aug 13, 2014 at 5:44

Hanky Panky · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-13 06:04:12Z

3

No need for that hefty function

$random=$quotes[array_rand($quotes)]; 
echo $random["quote"];
echo $random["attribution"];

Also, this is useless

<?php 
  foreach($quotes as $quote_id => $quote) {
  echo get_random_quote($quote_id, $quote); 
} ?>

If you have to run a loop over all the elements then why randomize hem in the first place? This is circular. You should just run the loop as many number of times as the quotes you need in output. If you however just need all the quotes but in a random order then that can simply be done in one line.

shuffle($quotes);            // this will randomize your quotes order for loop
foreach($quotes as $qoute)
{
   echo $quote["quote"];
   echo $quote["attribution"];
}

This will also make sure that your quotes are not repeated, whereas your own solution and the other suggestions will still repeat your quotes randomly for any reasonably sized array of quotes.

A simpler version of your function would be

function get_random_quote(&$quotes)
 {
  $quote=$quotes[array_rand($quotes)]; 
  return <<<HTML
            <h1>{$quote["quote"]}</h1>
            <p>{$quote["attribution"]}</p>
HTML;
}

edited Aug 13, 2014 at 6:04

answered Aug 13, 2014 at 5:32

Hanky Panky

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7 Comments

jayjo Over a year ago

Won't the shuffle function display all the quotes? Sorry for not being clearer, but ultimately I'd like to display only one quote, and then ultimately have a link that would generate another random quote within the same code block replacing the original.

Hanky Panky Over a year ago

Yes that will display all the quotes but then your own solution was doing that incorrectly as well. If you just need one random quote each time then just use the first 3 lines of this answer

jayjo Over a year ago

Thanks Hanky Panky, that's exactly what I was looking for - you rock! Much appreciated :) If I did want to grab the ID to append to the URL, how would I grab the ID of the quote?

jayjo Over a year ago

I guess I could just add that as a key, value pair?

Hanky Panky Over a year ago

Oh sorry I misunderstood you last question. You could return the id as well as your html from the function in an array. Or you could return the object itself and format it where you call it. That way you will get the id too

|

Satish Sharma · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-13 05:32:16Z

0

function should be like this

function get_random_quote($quote_id, $quote) {

  $m = 0;
  $n = sizeof($quote)-1;

  $i= rand($m, $n); 
  $output = "";
  $output = '<h1>' . $quote[$i]["quote"] . '.</h1>';
  $output .= '<p>' . $quote[$i]["attribution"] . '</p>';

  return $output;
}

However you are not using your first parameter-$quote_id in the function. you can remove it. and call function with single parameter that is array $quote

answered Aug 13, 2014 at 5:32

Satish Sharma

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Comments

Manwal · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-13 05:35:26Z

0

Why don't you try this:

$quote = $quotes;
$random_quote = array_rand($quote);
$random = $quote[$random_quote];
echo '<h1>' . $random["quote"] . '.</h1><br>';
echo '<p>' . $random["attribution"] . '</p>';

Want to create a function:

echo get_random_quote($quotes); 

function get_random_quote($quotes) {
    $quote = $quotes;
    $random_quote = array_rand($quote);
    $random = $quote[$random_quote];
    return '<h1>' . $random["quote"] . '.</h1><br>'.'<p>' . $random["attribution"] . '</p>';
}

answered Aug 13, 2014 at 5:35

Manwal

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Comments

Abubakar Siddiq Ango · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-13 05:49:56Z

First, you dont need the $quote_id in get_random_quote(), should be like this:

function get_random_quote($quote) {

  $output = "";
  $output = '<h1>' . $quote["quote"] . '.</h1>';
  $output .= '<p>' . $quote["attribution"] . '</p>';

  return $output;
}

And I cant see anything random that the function is doing. You are just iterating through the array:

foreach($quotes as $quote_id => $quote) {
  echo get_random_quote( $quote); 
}

According to http://php.net/manual/en/function.array-rand.php:

array_rand() Picks one or more random entries out of an array, and returns the key (or keys) of the random entries.

So I guess $quote[$random_quote] should return your element, you can use it like:

$random_quote = array_rand($quotes);
echo get_random_quote($quote[$random_quote]);

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