How can I calculate min, max and average values from random numbers? - php

Question

I have the following code:
<?php
echo "<p>Exercise 5:</p>";
echo "Numbers: ";
$random = 0;
while ($random < 10) {
$rand = rand(2, 80);
echo "$rand";
$random = $random + 1;
if ($random < 10) {
echo ", ";
};
}
echo "<br><br>Min value: <br>";
echo "Max value: <br>";
echo "Average value: <br>";
?>
How can I calculate the min, max and average value of the 10 numbers?
$min = min($rand) doesn't work...
$max = max($rand) doesn't work either...

Answer 1

$rand is a single value, minimum of a single value is irrelevant. Min takes an array as parameter (or several values), so save your values in an array, e.g. like this.
$array = array();
while($random < 10) {
$rand = rand(2, 80);
$array[] = $rand;
$random++; // short for random = random + 1
}
echo min($array);
Works also with max.
Moreover, average = sum / count, you have array_sum and count function in PHP, I let you figure out how to do that.
Edit: Augustin is right about division by zero. Consider adding a condition when making a division by a variable.

Answer 2

One solutions thinking in division by zero could be:
$random = 0;
$numbers = array();
while ($random < 10) {
$rand = rand(2, 80);
echo "$rand";
$numbers[] = $rand;
$random ++;
}
$min = min($numbers);
$max = max($numbers);
if($totalNumbers = count($numbers) > 0) {
$average = array_sum($numbers) / count($numbers);
}else{
$average = 0;
}
echo "<br><br>Min value: $min <br>";
echo "Max value: $max <br>";
echo "Average value: $average <br>";
I don't understand why min or max doesn't work, but in this case, you could make a custom max min function:
function customMaxMin($numbers)
{
$max = 0;
$min = 0;
foreach ($numbers as $number) {
$max = $number;
$min = $number;
if ($max > $number) {
$max = $number;
}
if ($min < $number) {
$min = $number;
}
}
return array('max' => $max, 'min' => $min);
}