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PHP

Posted by Ryley Ameden
Ryley Ameden
1,590 Points

Running a function if certain parameters within said function are met, if not re-run the function.

Good day everyone,

I was hoping someone might be able to assist me with a predicament I am having. I am looking to create a function that does the following: (sudo)

  1. query the database of all authors pertaining to a certain category
  2. return a random author ONLY if the author has all of his information filled out (IE: Name, Picture, Description)
  3. If the above dependencies are met print out this information, if not get another random author.

I have worked with PHP in the past but for some reason I just can't wrap my head around this.

Any help is welcome!

Thanks so much.

1 Answer

Benjamin Payne
Benjamin Payne
8,142 Points
Benjamin Payne
Benjamin Payne
8,142 Points

Hey Ryley,

I am fan of recursion so here is what i would do. Not sure of your exact setup so convert this to your appropriate ORM or whatever you're using:

<?php

/**
 * Fetch a random author if all required fields have been filled out.
 *
 * @param array $required_fields
 * @return mixed
 */
function fetchRandomAuthor($required_fields)
{
    $authors = ORM::query('authors')->where('category', 'non-fiction')->get();

    $author = $authors[array_rand($authors, 1)];

    foreach ($required_fields as $required_field) {
        if (empty($author[$required_field]) || ! isset($author[$required_field])) {
            return fetchRandomAuthor($required_fields);
        }
    }

    return $author;
}

For the check if the fields are filled, this should be done dynamically by passing in a required_fields array that can be updated outside of the application, most likely from a database table. That way if more or less fields become required down the road you can simply update that table.

Also there might be a more efficient way of comparing the required fields array with the author than a loop, but I'll leave that for you to explore ;).

array_rand reference

Hopefully that gets you down the road.

Thanks,

Ben