Random Array of username prefixes

Question

Modifying my chat website and I want to add a random assortment of prefixes when people join. right not the php code is: define("ANONYMOUS_PREFIX", "user"); which outputs as: user9367 joined.

Here's what I want done, but I have no hope with php.

define("ANONYMOUS_PREFIX", "$array"); 
$array = array(Mrs., Mr., Ms., Prof., Dr., Gen., Rep., Sen., St.);

Not to mention making it randomize.

well, it's a constant you cannot expect it to be dynamic? Btw. try array_rand — Royal Bg, Apr 03 '14 at 07:43

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 03 '14 at 07:44

Use array_rand()

$array = array('Mrs.', 'Mr.', 'Ms.', 'Prof.', 'Dr.', 'Gen.', 'Rep.', 'Sen.', 'St');
$prefix = $array[array_rand($array)];
define ("ANONYMOUS_PREFIX", $prefix);
var_dump(ANONYMOUS_PREFIX);

Note that you can only assign scalar values to constants.

nedt · Answer 2 · 2014-04-03T07:54:12.603

1

Guess you're more of a user of your chat software than a programmer I'll suggest you simply replace the define with this one line:

define("ANONYMOUS_PREFIX", array_rand(array_flip(array("Dr", "Mr", "Ms", "Prof"))));

If you want to add more prefixes always write them in brackets and add a comma before.

edited Apr 03 '14 at 07:54

answered Apr 03 '14 at 07:48

nedt

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 03 '14 at 07:45

A constant cannot store an array you need to use a regular variable. For randomizing use the function shuffle():

$array = array(Mrs., Mr., Ms., Prof., Dr., Gen., Rep., Sen., St.);
shuffle($array);

// you can assign the first element to the constant if you need to:
define('PREFIX', $array[0]);

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 03 '14 at 07:45

You can use mt_rand() to find a random index in your prefixes array and then define that prefix. I figure it is faster to find one random number than to randomly shuffle an array, especially considering the fact said this array might become bigger over time.

<?php
$prefixes = array(Mrs., Mr., Ms., Prof., Dr., Gen., Rep., Sen., St.);
mt_srand(microtime());
$randval = mt_rand(0,count($prefixes));
$prefix = $prefixes[$randval];
define("ANONYMOUS_PREFIX", $prefix);

Random Array of username prefixes

4 Answers4