Trouble when using 'array_rand' (displaying numbers instead of array items)

[Dormilich]

to check the keys and their associated values, check the output from print_r().

[ilya Kraft]

I tried this:

$style_class = array("styles" => "story_style1","story_style2","story_style3","story_style4");

$div_class = print_r($style_class);

$storyDisplayList .= '<div class="'. $div_class .'"></div>

And it gives this output:

Array
(
    [styles] => story_style1
    [0] => story_style2
    [1] => story_style3
    [2] => story_style4
)

Am I suppose to somehow use it to achieve the task?

Thnx

[Dormilich]

actually, it doesn’t matter what keys you use, because array_rand() will select one of the available (regardles whether they are numeric or not).

[ilya Kraft]

I am really stuck and confused now...

So I will not use the print_r();

Instead I'll do this

$style_class = array("styles" => "story_style1","story_style2","story_style3","story_style4");
$div_class = array_rand($style_class);
$storyDisplayList .= '<div class="'. $div_class .'">

This gives output of <div class="styles"> </div>
So what Am I suppose to do to get final result of

<div class="story_style1"></div>
<div class="story_style3"></div>
<div class="story_style2"></div>
<div class="story_style4"></div>
<div class="story_style3"></div>
<div class="story_style1"></div>
<div class="story_style4"></div>

and so on ...

I just don't understand what I need to do now...

Thnx

[Dormilich]

print_r() is only for debugging purposes.

[ilya Kraft]

Yeh, I understood that when I saw the output, but do you have any suggestion of what I should do next? You can see what I have now in my previous post, I'm now stuck with next step, I have no idea what to do to complete it. This feature is one of the main that I need for my website design, so I really need to understand and get it working... So if you have any suggestions or could point where the issue is could you please help me?

Thank You

[Dormilich]

I know how to do it, it’s just that I am not the best teacher. and I deem teaching necessary, as this problem turned out to be a very basic one. i.e. giving you the answer would solve the case, but you wouldn’t have a clue what went wrong in the first place.

maybe we should have an IM session later, as there explanation goes smoother.

[ilya Kraft]

That would be great, you have been great help, I think that's mee who got things wrong I just got messed up and confused my selves, usually I understand where the problem is when I ask it here, but this is something new in PHP that I don't know yet.

If you have free time it would be great to chat, do you have skype? I don't want others to see my nick name here so if you could e-mail me your contact details …

[ilya Kraft]

Hi ;D

It took me a while of research, but I think I figured it out )))

$style_class = array("story_style1","story_style2","story_style3","story_style4");

$random_class = array_rand($style_class, 1);

var_dump($random_class);

$div_class = $style_class[$random_class];

$storyDisplayList .= '<div class="' . $div_class . '"></div>

It gives me output that I wanted in my source code, now div's have random classes that I want, but for some reason that I don't understand :/ I get this thing

int(1) int(2) int(0) int(3) int(3) int(2) int(3)

On the top of my page, http://inelmo.com < you can see what I mean there.

UPDATE: I also remembered that I echo out all errors while I'm in the process of creation

e.g

error_reporting(0);
ini_set('display_errors', '1');

Could this be what is causing the problem? As I am not sure whether that is an error or output.

[Dormilich]

It gives me output that I wanted in my source code, now div's have random classes that I want, but for some reason that I don't understand :/ I get this thing

int(1) int(2) int(0) int(3) int(3) int(2) int(3)

that is the output generated by var_dump() (line #5)

[ilya Kraft]

Ohhhh ;D Finally what a relief, it work's now just As I wanted.

Thank You Very Much For Awesome help and explaining I really appreciate that! Sorry for taking so much time (25 posts) ;D .

[Dormilich]

this would have been the short, unexplained answer, which I had in mind in post #4.

$style_array = array("story_style1", "story_style2", "story_style3", "story_style4");
$storyDisplayList .= '<div class="' .  $style_array[array_rand($style_array)] . '"></div>