Create a "Secret Santa" generator using MySQL and PHP - php

Question

I am trying to create a Secret Santa system using a PHP page and a MySQL database to store the details so if someone forgets their match they can re-request it.
Step 1: I created a random number generator based on the number of people in the list in the database.
Count Function:
$maxSQL = "SELECT COUNT(id) as total FROM secretsanta";
$maxRS = mysqli_query($conn, $maxSQL);
$maxQuery = mysqli_fetch_array($maxRS);
$maxpersons = $maxQuery['total'];
Then the Random Number Generator:
$assigned = rand(1,$maxpersons);
Step 2: Test if the random number matches the persons own id and regenerate a new number if true.
do {
$assigned = rand(1,$maxpersons);
} while ($assigned==$id);
Step 3: Write the paired id to the persons database record.
$assignSQL = "UPDATE secretsanta SET assigned = '".$assigned."' WHERE secretsanta.id = ".$id;
if (mysqli_query($conn, $assignSQL)) {
echo "Record updated successfully";
} else {
echo "Error updating record: " . mysqli_error($conn);
}
The Problem: Now I need to check that other people aren't assigned to that person or otherwise some could miss out and others would get more than others.
I tried to implement a function that contained a query to test each record to see if that number already existed and was hoping to add it as a condition to perhaps a while or do while statement?
if (!function_exists('checkRandom')){
function checkRandom($funcid){
$Check_SQL = "SELECT assigned FROM secretsanta ORDER BY id ASC";
$Check_RES = mysqli_query($conn, $Check_SQL);
if (Check_RES) {
while ($CheckArray = mysqli_fetch_array($Check_RES, MYSQLI_ASSOC)) {
$CheckAsgn = $CheckArray['assigned'];
if ($funcid==$CheckAsgn) {return true;}else{return false;}
}
}
}
}
Then implement it into the do while statement like this:
do {
$assigned = rand(1,$maxpersons);
} while ($assigned==$id||checkRandom($assigned));
No luck so far...HELP!.. please :)
P.S. I know there are websites that already do this, I just don't trust them to give out mine and family email address' if I can make my own private version myself.

Answer 1

Using your method, the first few assignments will be done with no problem, but imagine the last unassigned entry and how many times it will try a random number only to find the person with that id is already assigned..
I'm gonna give you another approach to your problem: for each user that you want to assign a santa to, make a new SELECT statement with a WHERE clause that lets you select only those users that are not assigned yet.
check out my code and see if that helps you. I just typed this and didnt test it so there could be some mistakes.
// load all unassigned users into an array
$unassignedUsers = [];
$query = "SELECT id, assigned FROM secretsanta WHERE assigned is NULL";
$res = mysqli_query($conn, $query);
while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($res){
$unassignedUsers[] = $row;
}
if(count($unassignedUsers) == 1){
echo 'There is only 1 unassigned user. Therefore he cannot be matched';
} else {
// for loop for each user in DB that is not assigned yet
//for ($i = 1;$i <= count($unassignedUsers); $i++){
$i = 0;
foreach($unassignedUsers as $user)
// if its the second-to-last iterations of the for-loop, check for legality of the last one
if(count($unassignedUsers) - $i == 1){
$lastUserID = $unassignedUsers[count($unassignedUsers)-1]['id'];
$query = "SELECT id FROM secretsanta WHERE assigned is NULL AND id = ".$lastUserID;
$res = mysqli_query($conn, $query);
$rowcount = mysqli_num_rows($res);
if ($rowcount){
// last user is still unassigned
$query = "UPDATE secretsanta SET assigned = '".$lastUserID."' WHERE id = ".$user['id'];
if(mysqli_query($conn, $query)){
echo "Record with id ".$user['id']." updated successfully";
} else {
echo "Error updating record: ".mysqli_error($conn);
}
}
} else {
// select all unassigned users
$unassignedIDs = [];
$query = "SELECT id FROM secretsanta WHERE assigned is NULL AND id <> ".$user['id'];
$res = mysqli_query($conn, $query);
while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($res){
$unassignedIDs[] = $row['id'];
}
// get a random id from $unassignedIDs
$randomIndex = rand(0, count($unassignedIDs)-1);
$randomID = $unassignedIDs[$randomIndex];
// assign $randomID to user
$query = "UPDATE secretsanta SET assigned = '".$randomID."' WHERE id = ".$user['id'];
if(mysqli_query($conn, $query)){
echo "Record with id ".$user['id']." updated successfully";
} else {
echo "Error updating record: ".mysqli_error($conn);
}
}
$i++;
}
}
last edit: refactored whole code so it is able to be run multiple times and only assigns new users who are not assigned yet.

Answer 2

Step 1 is dependent on have a contiguous set of ids for the people. Think what happens if '3' leaves the company and it hires 6 to replace them....1,2,4,5,6 ($maxpersons=5)
"Now I need to check" - no you are still trying to solve the problem by guessing then seeing if your guess worked. Use an algorithm which is always going to return a correct result. The method below requires the addition of a temporary field 'sequence' of type float.
mysqli_query($conn,"UPDATE secretsanta SET sequence=RAND()");
$first=false;
$prev=false;
$all=mysqli_query($conn, "SELECT * FROM secretsanta ORDER BY sequence, id");
while ($r=mysqli_fetch_assoc($all)) {
if (false===$first) {
$first=$r['id'];
} else {
save_pair($prev, $r['id']);
}
$prev=$r['id'];
}
save_pair($prev, $first);
(but with better error checking)