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List:       php-db
Subject:    Re: [PHP-DB] Random question selection in PHP w/ MySQL backend.
From:       "John Pickett" <xtremist () xmission ! com>
Date:       2001-07-31 20:47:28
[Download RAW message or body]

Adam,

I'm what I would call a novice to PHP and databases in general, however if I
had to do what you're doing, I might do the following...

Add a field to the table that contains your questions called "displayed" and
have it be an enum of Yes/No True/False, etc...  In your script, you'd then
query for all the questions that haven't already been displayed.  Then get a
random one of those (plenty of randomizing functions in PHP I believe).
Display it, mark it as displayed in the db...  Next time, it won't even get
returned in the query.  I don't know if you have to do this on a per-user
basis or what.  If so, you will probably have to create a session table and
keep track of the questions each user has viewed...  Hope this gets you
started...  Cheers!

My 2 ¢
John Pickett
http://www.bvstudios.com/
Co-Author:  Inside Dreamweaver 4
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735710848/xtremist

----- Original Message -----
From: "Adam Lundrigan" <ceo@vpu-virtual.com>
To: <php-db@lists.php.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2001 2:32 PM
Subject: [PHP-DB] Random question selection in PHP w/ MySQL backend.


I'm having a bit of trouble creating a random question selector. I'm using
PHP 4.0.6 and MySQL 3.23.36 on Windows 98 SE.
I've tried several different solutions, but none work at all.

What i need to do is select 10 questions from a database (db: vpt, table:
questions), and make sure that the same question doesn't appear twice. The
questions need to appear in a random order each time the script is loaded.
It sounds simple enough, but i just can't seem to get it to work.

Any suggestions??


Thanks in advance,

-Adam Lundrigan
 CEO, VPU
 http://www.vpu-virtual.com/

 ICQ # 73617446
 ceo@vpu-virtual.com





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