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PHP

Posted by Thomas James
Thomas James
5,580 Points

Basic Array and If statement problem.

Hey there! I am trying to do the following:

1) generate a random number. 2) Compare that number with the number under the ‘card value’ key in the array. 3) If the number is in the array add it to the total variable and remove that whole array from the multi-dimensional array.

I am very new to programming and have the following:

$cards[] = array('card_value' => 1,
               'card_suit' => 'Heart',
               'card_face' => 'Ace');

$cards[] = array('card_value' => 2,
               'card_suit' => 'Heart',
               'card_face' => '');

$cards[] = array('card_value' => 3,
               'card_suit' => 'Heart',
               'card_face' => '');

$cards[] = array('card_value' => 4,
               'card_suit' => 'Heart',
               'card_face' => 'Ace');

$cards[] = array('card_value' => 5,
               'card_suit' => 'Heart',
               'card_face' => '');

$cards[] = array('card_value' => 6,
               'card_suit' => 'Heart',
               'card_face' => '');

$cards[] = array('card_value' => 11,
               'card_suit' => 'Heart',
               'card_face' => 'Jack');

$cards[] = array('card_value' => 12,
               'card_suit' => 'Heart',
               'card_face' => 'Queen');

$cards[] = array('card_value' => 13,
               'card_suit' => 'Heart',
               'card_face' => 'King');

$total_number = 0;

do {
    $randon_number = rand(1,13);
  if ($random_number == $cards('card_value')){
  echo $cards('cards value'); 
  $total_number = $total_number + $randon_number;
  }
  else {
  echo 'not matching value';
  }
} 
while 
($total_number <= 21);

i keep getting the error Function name must be a string. Can anyone help? Thankyou

2 Answers

Joel Bardsley
Joel Bardsley
31,249 Points
Joel Bardsley
Joel Bardsley
31,249 Points

You have some inconsistencies with the $random_number variable, twice it has been misspelled ('randon') whereas the if statement has it spelled correctly.

Also $cards('card_value') should use square brackets ie. $cards['card_value'] as you're referencing an array key. Using parentheses means it might think you're passing the string 'card_value' into a function assigned to the $cards variable.

You could use PHP's array_column method to create a temporary single-dimensional array of just card_values, which you could then use the array_search method to search for a matching card value more easily.

I've done a quick workspace with a few notes to implement this, feel free to fork and expand on this for your own needs.

Thomas James
Thomas James
5,580 Points
Thomas James
Thomas James
5,580 Points

Thank you Joel! I am going to look at this in great detail tomorrow as my head is swimming with code right now and I need a break. Will update you tomorrow when I give it a try for myself.

Thankyou for the help!