Recursive function in cakePHP - php

Question

In a controller action, I handle the file upload like following (in short):
$originalFileName = $meetingsTask['submitted_file']['name'];
$file = $meetingsTask['submitted_file'];
$ext = substr(strtolower(strrchr($file['name'], '.')), 1);
$arr_ext = array('jpg', 'jpeg', 'png', 'gif', 'pdf', 'doc', 'docx', 'xlsx', 'xls', 'xlt', 'xlm', 'ods','ppt', 'pot', 'pps' );
if(!in_array($ext, $arr_ext)){
...code omitted...
}
$newFileName = $this->generateFileName( $originalFileName );
...logic continues...
The problem is that generateFileName function always returns empty when file name already exists. Here is the function itself:
public function generateFileName( $fileName ){
if( $this->Tasks->checkFileName( $fileName ) ){
$prefix = rand(1, 1000);
$fileName = $prefix . '_' . $fileName;
$this->generateFileName( $fileName );
}else{
return $fileName;
}
}
checkFileName() only returns true/false depending on the existance of filename in the database.
What could be causing the trouble?
Any help or guidance is much appreciated.

Answer 1

If I understand correctly what you want, the recursion in not needed
public function generateFileName( $fileName ) {
// Start with source filename
$new = $fileName;
while( $this->Tasks->checkFileName( $new ) ) {
// If file exist try new prefix
$prefix = rand(1, 1000);
$new = $prefix . '_' . $fileName;
}
return $new;
}