How to correctly manage a bidding system with PHP? - php

I've developed a bidding system with PHP and MySQL.
It works good in the most of the cases, but I've noticed there is a problem when offers are really close.
$now = DateTime::createFromFormat('U.u', microtime(true));
$dateMicroTime = date("Y-m-d H:i:s").".".$now->format("u");
$amountToRaise = 100;
$lastOffer = $bid->lastOffer();
//if there is an offer yet
if($lastOffer){
$newPrice = $lastOffer->getAmount()+$amountToRaise;
//else is the first offer
}else{
$newPrice = $amountToRaise;
}
//if the user is not the last bidder
if($user->getId() != $lastOffer->getUserId()){
$bidOffer = new BidOffer();
$bidOffer->setBidId($bid->getId());
$bidOffer->setUserId($user->getId());
$bidOffer->setAmount($newPrice);
$bidOffer->setTime($dateMicroTime);
$bidOffer->save();
//if this is not the first offer I give back the money to the previous user
if($lastOffer){
$lastUser = $lastOffer->user();
$lastUser->setCash($lastUser->getCash()+$lastOffer->getAmount());
$lastUser->save();
}
}
The code works well when offers are done in different moments, but users offer in the same seconds for example: 18:00:01.1299022 and 18:00.02.1222377
The user with previous offer doesn't receive back the offer.
How can I fix this? I've tried to use a temporary variable to block the statement temporary until every query are executed, but no success.

I would separate dateTime from microtime and would not use $dateMicroTime = date("Y-m-d H:i:s").".".$now->format("u");.
You can than use microtime to extract the last bidder. This can be done by adding a bid_utime column in your DB. If you are looking all the bidders for one auction chronologically ORDER BY table.bid_utime DESC.Last bidder can be found by ORDER BY table.bid_utime DESC LIMIT 1 as a return from $lastOffer = $bid->lastOffer();.
This also means you wont be saving your bids with: $bidOffer->setTime($dateMicroTime);but with something like:
$bidOffer->setDate($date); and $bidOffer->set_uTime($now);
But you can also skip all of this and return only the last entry from the bid table with SELECT * FROM bid_Table ORDER BY ID DESC LIMIT 1 and forget about dateMicroTime and microtime. Hope this helps.

Related

Counting and sorting from mysql/php

I have a MySQL database with user inputted address's in it and need to sort and echo/print in order of the amount of times an address is used/displayed in the database? i.e if an address is in the database more times, then it is to be displayed first, and the least times is to be displayed last in a environment.
There is no example of coding at this stage, because it is a new script and not to sure where to start with it.
Could any one point me in the right direction?
This seams to have done the job!
$sqld="SELECT DeliveryName, DeliveryAddress, count(*)
AS alias
FROM rwxoq_jobs
GROUP BY DeliveryAddress
ORDER BY alias DESC";
$resultd = mysqli_query($conn, $sqld);
while($rowd = mysqli_fetch_assoc($resultd)) {
if (strpos($list, $rowd{'DeliveryAddress'}) === false) {
$list .= $rowd{'DeliveryAddress'}.'|';
echo $rowd{'DeliveryName'}.'<BR>'.$rowd{'DeliveryAddress'}.'<BR>';
}
}

Time Calculations with MySQL

I'm writing a time logging programme for a client who is a piano tuner, and I've written the following PHP code to give a record a status of 'to do':
$last_tuned = '2017-01-05';
$tuning_period = 3;
$month_last_tuned = date('Y-m', strtotime(date('Y-m-d', strtotime($last_tuned))));
$next_tuning = date('Y-m', strtotime($month_last_tuned.(' +'.$tuning_period.' months')));
if (time() > strtotime($next_tuning.' -1 months')) {
if (time() > strtotime($next_tuning)) {
return 'late';
} else {
return 'upcoming';
}
}
As you can see, the $last_tuned variable is of the date(YYYY-MM-DD) format. This is then converted to a (YYYY-MM) format.
Once convered, an additional number of months, identical to $tuning_period is then added to the $month_last_tuned variable giving us a month and year value for when we need to add a new record.
If the current time (found with time()) is greater than the $next_tuning variable - 1 month, it returns that the task is upcoming. If it's after the $next_tuning variable, it returns that the task is late.
I now have to write a MySQL query to list the items that would return as upcoming or late.
How would I write this in MySQL? I'm not very good with MySQL functions, and some help would be much appreciated.
My attempt at the logic is:
SELECT * FROM records
// The next lines are to get the most recent month_last_tuned value and add the tuning_period variable
WHERE
NOW() > (SELECT tuning_date FROM tunings ORDER BY tuning_date ASC LIMIT 1)
+
(SELECT tuning_period FROM records WHERE records.id = INITIAL CUSTOMER ID)
I know that that is completely wrong. The logic is pretty much there though.
My database schema is as follows:
I expect the rows returned from the query to be on-par with the 'late' or 'upcoming' values in the PHP Code above. This means that the rows returned will be within 1 months of their next tuning date (calculated from last tuning plus tuning period).
Thanks!
You'd probably be better off with using the DateTime object instead of manipulating date strings.
$last_tuned = '2017-01-05';
$tuning_period = 3; // months
$dt_last_tuned = DateTimeImmutable::createFromFormat('Y-m-d',$last_tuned);
$dt_next_tuning = $dt_last_tuned->add(new DateInterval('P3M'));
$dt_now = new DateTimeImmutable();
$dt_tuning_upcoming = $dt_next_tuning->sub(new DateInterval('P1M'));
if( $dt_now > $dt_next_tuning) {
return 'late';
}
if( $dt_now > $dt_tuning_upcoming) {
return 'upcoming';
}
You can also use these DateTime objects in your MySQL queries, by building the query and passing through something like $dt_next_tuning->format('Y-m-d H:i:s'); as needed.
Given your table structure, however, it may be easier to just get all the relevant records and process them. It's a little difficult to tell exactly how the pieces fit together, but generally speaking MySQL shouldn't be used for "processing" stuff.

How to loop my function based on query result

I wrote a function which makes a random id makeid(); Just to ensure the id is unique I have a SQL statement which checks if the id already exists.
$does_id_exist = mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(*) AS count FROM signups WHERE affid='$affid'");
if(mysql_num_rows($does_id_exist) == 1)
{
#loop function and perform query again
}
else
{
#insert record
}
So I'm having trouble with looping the function. How do I loop my function makeid() and perform the $does_id_exist check to ensure that each ID is unique.
--UPDATE-- Just to clarify- My code makes an id like YES#281E But before I INSERT this id into the users record. I just need to verify IF any other user already has this id. IF another user has this id that event must trigger my function to create a new id e.g. WOW!29E3 and again check the sql/query to ensure no other user has that id. Continue to loop if fails or end and INSERT if the id is available.
You can either just use a primary key on your database table, or something like this:
<?php
// the id to insert
$newId = null;
// populate with results from a SELECT `aff_id` FROM `table`
$currentIds = array();
// prepopulate
for( $i=0; $i<100000; $i++ )
{
$currentIds[] = "STRING_" + rand();
}
// generate at least one id
do
{
$newId = "STRING_" + rand();
}
// while the id is taken (cached in $currentIds)
while( in_array($newId, $currentIds) );
// when we get here, we have an id that's not taken.
echo $newId;
?>
Output:
STRING_905649971 (run time 95ms);
I'd definitely not recommend running the query repeatedly. Perhaps a final check before you insert, if your traffic volume is high enough.
Do not do COUNT(*), because you do not need to know how many rows is there (it should be 0 or 1 as you need Id unique), so even DB finds your row it will still be checking for the whole table to count. You really care if you got 1 row, so just select for row with that ID and this sufficient. You should also avoid using rand() - this does not help as you see and you cannot predict how many loops you can do before you find "free slot". use something predictable, like date prefix, or prefix incremented each day. anything that would help you narrow the data set. But for now (pseudocode!):
$id = null;
while( $id == null ) {
$newId = 'prefix' . rand();
mysql_query("SELECT `affid` FROM `signups` WHERE `affid`='${newId}'");
if( mysql_num_rows() == 0) {
$id = newId;
break;
}
}
Ensure you got DB indexed, to speed things up.
EDIT: I do agree that any cache would be useful to speed things up (you can add it easily yourself based on #Josh example), still, I think this is fixing at wrong place. If possible rethink the way you generate your ID. It does not really need to be auto increment, but something more predictable than rand() would help you. If your ID does not need to be easily memorable and it is not any security concern to have them sequential, maybe use numbers with other base than 10 (i.e. using 26 would use all digits + letters so you'd end with PREFIX-AX3TK, so string as you want, and at the same time you would easily be able to quickly generate next Id

Checking mySQL db for duplicate uid

I am trying to implement a check in my PHP code, that checks if there is a duplicate uid in the database, and if so, to assign a new uid, and check again, but I am having trouble nailing the logic, here is what I have thus far,
function check($uid){
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table WHERE uid='$uid'");
$pre = mysql_num_rows($sql);
if($pre >= 1){
return false;
}else{
return true;
}
}
And then using that function I thought of using a while loop to continue looping through until it evaluates to true
$pre_check = check($uid);
while($pre_check == false){
//having trouble figuring out what should go here
}
So basically, once I have a usable uid, write everything to the database, else keep generating new ones and checking them till it finds one that is not already in use.
It is probably really simple, but for some reason I am having trouble with it.
Thanx in advance!
$uid = 100; // pick some other value you want to start with or have stored based on the last successful insert.
while($pre_check == false){
$pre_check = check(++$uid);
}
Of course ths is exactly what 'auto incrementing' primary keys are useful for. Are you aware of 'auto incrementing' primary keys in mysql?
EDIT
In light of your comment regarding maintaining someone else's code that uses the random function like that (ewwwww)... I would use the method I suggest above and store the last inserted id somewhere you can read it again for the next user. This will allow you to "fill-in-the-blanks" for the uids that are missing. So, if for example you have uids 1, 2, 5, 9, 40, 100... you can start with $uid = 1; Your while loop will return once you get to 3. Now you store the 3 and create the new record. Next time, you start with $uid = 3; and so on. Eventually you will have all numbers filled in.
It is also important to realize that you will need to do the inserts by either locking the tables for WRITES. You don't want to get into a race condition where two different users are given the same uid because they are both searching for an available uid at the same time.
Indeed the best is to use autoincrement ids, but if you don't have the choice, you can do a reccursive function like that:
function find_uid() {
$new_uid = rand(1000000000, 9999999999);
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(*) AS 'nb' WHERE uid=".$new_uid.";");
$row = mysql_fetch_assoc();
$pre = $row['nb'];
return ($pre >= 1 ? find_uid() : $new_uid);
}
COUNT(*) should be more performant because the count is made by MySQL and not php.
By the way, if you need a new uid shouldn't the condition be ($pre > 0) instead of ($pre > 1) ?

PHP: mysql_fetch_array() in a while-loop takes too long

I am creating an online calendar for a client using PHP/MySQL.
I initiated a <table> and <tr>, and after that have a while loop that creates a new <td> for each day, up to the max number of days in the month.
The line after the <td>, PHP searches a MySQL database for any events that occur on that day by comparing the value of $i (the counter) to the value of the formatted Unix timestamp within that row of the database. In order to increment the internal row counter ONLY when a match is made, I have made another while loop that fetches a new array for the result. It is significantly slowing down loading time.
Here's the code, shortened so you don't have to read the unnecessary stuff:
$qry = "SELECT * FROM events WHERE author=\"$author\"";
$result = mysql_query($qry) or die(mysql_error());
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
for ($i = 1; $i <= $max_days; $i++) {
echo "<td class=\"day\">";
$rowunixdate_number = date("j", $row['unixdate']);
if ($rowunixdate_number == $i) {
while ($rowunixdate_number == $i) {
$rowtitle = $row['title'];
echo $rowtitle;
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$rowunixdate_number = date("j", $row['unixdate']);
}
}
echo "</td>";
if (newWeek($day_count)) {
echo "</tr><tr>";
}
$day_count++;
}
The slowness is most likely because you're doing 31 queries, instead of 1 query before you build the HTML table, as Nael El Shawwa pointed out -- if you're trying to get all the upcoming events for a given author for the month, you should select that in a single SQL query, and then iterate over the result set to actually generate the table. E.g.
$sql = "SELECT * FROM events WHERE author = '$author' ORDER BY xdate ASC";
$rsEvents = mysql_query($sql);
echo("<table><tr>");
while ($Event = mysql_fetch_array($rsEvents)) {
echo("<td>[event info in $Event goes here]</td>");
}
echo("</tr></table>");
Furthermore, it's usually a bad idea to intermix SQL queries and HTML generation. Your external data should be gathered in one place, the output data generated in another. My example cuts it close, by having the SQL immediately before the HTML generation, but that's still better than having an HTML block contain SQL queries right in the middle of it.
Have you run that query in a MySQL tool to see how long it takes?
Do you have an index on the author column?
There's nothing wrong with your PHP. I suspect the query is the problem and no index is the cause.
aside from their comments above, also try to optimize your sql query since this is one of the most common source of performance issues.
let say you have a news article table with Title, Date, Blurb, Content fields and you only need to fetch the title and display them as a list on the html page,
to do a "SELECT * FROM TABLE"
means that you are requiring the db server to fetch all the field data when doing the loop (including the Blurb and Content which you are not going to use).
if you optimize that to something like:
"SELECT Title, Date FROM TABLE" would fetch only the necessary data and would be more efficient in terms of server utilization.
i hope this helps you.
Is 'author' an id? or a string? Either way an index would help you.
The query is not slow, its the for loop thats causing the problem. Its not complete; missing the $i loop condition and increment. Or is this a typo?
Why don't you just order the query by the date?
SELECT * FROM events WHERE author=? ORDER BY unixdate ASC
and have a variable to store the current date you are on to have any logic required to group events by date in your table ex. giving all event rows with the same date the same color.
Assuming the date is a unix timestamp that does not account for the event's time then you can do this:
$currentDate = 0;
while(mysql_fetch_array($result)){
if($currentDate == $row['unixdate']){
//code to present an event that is on the same day as the previous event
}else{
//code to present an even on a date that is past the previous event
//you are sorting events by date in the query
}
//update currentDate for next iteration
$currentDate = $row['unixdate'];
}
if unixdate includes the event time, then you need to add some logic to just extract the unix date timestmap excluding the hours and minutes.
Hope that helps

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