randomly select a word between commas in php string

Question

I have a string that looks like this

$genres = "pop,rock,jazz,80s";

i was wondering is it possible to then create a string that randomly selects any of those genres above? but removing the comma?

for example it would create

$newgenre = "pop";

didn't you already post something similar ealier? https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47369338/is-it-possible-to-put-an-array-into-a-php-string an you were given a few answers. What's the status of that one? You didn't post a comment under any of them. — Funk Forty Niner, Nov 18 '17 at 20:03

Cole · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-19T23:21:13.617

1

You could use something like this:

$genreArray = explode(',', $genres);
$genre = $genreArray[mt_rand(0, count($genreArray))];

edited Nov 19 '17 at 23:21

answered Nov 18 '17 at 19:56

Cole

431
2
15

This is giving me an error : [18-Nov-2017 19:58:51 UTC] PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ']' in – Jamie Warren Nov 18 '17 at 19:59
`mt_rand()` is better than rand. [**why?**](http://php.net/manual/en/function.mt-rand.php) – Martin Nov 19 '17 at 18:51
As of 7.1, `rand()` has become an alias for `mt_rand()`, but I've changed it for backwards compatibility. Thanks, @Martin! -CM – Cole Nov 19 '17 at 23:21

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

1

Alternative Method

Everyone else is using random selection from an array, try this alternative:

$genreArray = explode(',', $genres);
shuffle($genreArray);     //mixes up the array using rand or mt_rand 
$genre = $genreArray[0];  // take first element of shuffled array.

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

1
1

answered Nov 19 '17 at 18:59

Martin

20,858
7
60
113

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 18 '17 at 19:53

You can use the $genreArray = explode(',', $genres) function to put it all into an array. Then you can generate a random index for the array, using

$randomKey = rand(0, count($genreArray))

And then, all you have to do is take the random genre from the array.

$randomGenre = $genreArray[$randomKey];

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 18 '17 at 19:54

0

You could explode

and get a random value from the array

$genresArray = explode(',',$genres);

$your_values = array_rand ($genresArray,1);

echo $your_values[0];

answered Nov 18 '17 at 19:54

ScaisEdge

129,293
10
87
97

randomly select a word between commas in php string

4 Answers4

Alternative Method