Random number in html/php link

[marklcfc]

I'd like to generate a random number from between 1 and 5000,

This is how a link normally looks on my website - http://mysite.net/in...ils.php?mid=754

The code for this is generated by <a href="http://mysite.net/index.php/details.php?mid='.$v['id'].'"> (the number is chosen depending on which link is selected. - the ID is being retrieved from a database)

I'd like to create a seperate link that whenever its clicked it throws a random number in place. Can anyone help me achieve this?

[n_K]

Javascript or PHP?

I'm assuming you want this to avoid caching.

PHP would be: rand(1,5000);

[marklcfc]

PHP. How would I have the link? I'm not all cluued up on PHP :(

[n_K]

Change: mid='.$v['id'].'

to: mid='.$v['id'].'&rd='.rand(1, 5000).'

[Lingwo]

<a href="http://mysite.net/index.php/details.php?mid=<?php echo rand(1,15000); ?>">LINK</a>
[/CODE]

That should do it

If it is already between PHP tags then

[CODE]
<a href="http://mysite.net/index.php/details.php?mid='. rand(1,15000) .'">LINK</a>
[/CODE]

[marklcfc]

  On 23/02/2012 at 13:27, Lingwo said:

<a href="http://mysite.net/index.php/details.php?mid=<?php echo rand(1,15000); ?>">LINK</a>
[/CODE]

That should do it

Thanks that worked :D

I do however have a slight problem, in a few cases there is an ID missing (when I've made a mistake and deleted an entry in the database) so it throws up an error when its tries to retrieve 54 for example and there isn't a 54 in the database.

Is there any way around this?

[Lingwo]

Only way i can see is either do an if on the details.php page to say "if the returned query row count is 0" then display a friendly error or write function that will grab all the ID's from a database and then randomize a number from that.

Is this a site you've made yourself or is it running on an existing software?

[marklcfc]

It's self-made not by me though I've had someone create the database for me.

I wouldn't know how to do what you say in writing a function to grab all the IDs :(

[rfirth]

Forget the random ID in the URL. Just create a page that randomly selects a page from your database. Use SQL to do this.

Depending on what database you're using, it will look something like this:

SELECT * FROM table
ORDER BY RAND()
LIMIT 1[/CODE]

http://www.petefreit...om/item/466.cfm

This is how you'd want to implement something like StumbleUpon.

[marklcfc]

Do I just stick that code in a php file?

[rfirth]

  On 23/02/2012 at 17:14, marklcfc said:

Do I just stick that code in a php file?

No, you would have to modify the code that reads the page-id from the URL and uses it to look up the page in the database. Somewhere, there will be code that looks like:

SELECT * FROM table WHERE pageid=mid[/CODE]

[color=#282828]That code will return the data for the page that was specified in the URL. Instead, you want something more like:

[CODE]SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1[/CODE]

[/color]

[color=#282828]Of course, you have to change the part that says "table" to the name of the table you are reading in the database.[/color]