Problem with array

[divyac]

I am doing a quiz site using php and mysql wherein i am retrieving question and answers randomly from the database.Since the questions are getting repeated,i have decided to get the id of all the questions in an array and check for repeatability but dont know how to implement this using php..can anyone help me?

[Kailash Badu]

What have you tried so far?

[Cups]

Do you mean how do you search in a PHP array after you have got them out of your database?

$qs = array(10,11,23);  // question numbers
$tgt = 10;  // current question number

if( in_array($tgt, $qs )) {
    echo 'duplicate found';
    }else{
    // do something positive
} 

[Jake Arkinstall]

I'd use something like this.

<?php
Session_Start();
if(!isset($_SESSION['CurrentQuestions'])) $_SESSION['CurrentQuestions'] = array();
//If a question/answer has been submitted, save it to the session
if(array_key_exists('Question', $_POST)){
    $_SESSION['CurrentQuestions'][intval($_POST['Question'])] = $_POST['Answer'];
}
//Get the IDs of the questions asked so far...
$CurrentQuesionIDs = Array_Keys($_SESSION['CurrentQuestions']);
//We want to exclude these from the query, so this can be placed in MySQL's NOT IN function
$NotIn = (Count($CurrentQuestionIDs) < 1) ? '-1' : implode(', ', $CurrentQuestionIDs);
//assuming you're using MySQL_Query, and that there are questions within topics...
$Query = MySQL_Query('SELECT ID, Question FROM Quiz WHERE Topic = 1 AND ID NOT IN(' . $NotIn . ') ORDER BY RAND()');
if(MySQL_Num_Rows($Query) == 0){
    //Quiz has finished!
}else{
    //Output Question
}

[v1rgil]

the best way to do is to retrieve the questions and store them into session variable.
for example, if the quiz presents 10 questions, then script retrieves 10 random questions from database and put them into session variable.

this way, you'll save a lot of queries on your database and effectively eliminates duplicates.

[divyac]

Hi arkinstall,

Can u please explain me ur code.....Also,all my questions gets loaded in a single page...
Pls refer quizpage.com

[Jake Arkinstall]

You're loading them on a single page!?

Then why not just:

$Query = MySQL_Query('SELECT columns FROM table ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 10'); 

That will get questions in a random order, and they won't be repeated unless you have repeated rows in the table.

[scritube]

just printr($var);

and see thare what is going on with your array.

[divyac]

Hi Arkinstall,
The questions get loaded in a single page but only single question at a time and on clicking the continue button,next question should appear..Also can u help me out to find the difference between the start time and end time of the quiz.?

[v1rgil]

Hi Arkinstall,
The questions get loaded in a single page but only single question at a time and on clicking the continue button,next question should appear..Also can u help me out to find the difference between the start time and end time of the quiz.?

use Javascript date object to get the current time as the start time when page loads, then when user hits next get current time and subtract the start time. that's how you get the elapsed time.