I dont know what to do with this PHP Code - php

Question

The code below basically helps in finding out if a number is a Palindromic Number or not. Although I get my execution done with the output, I just can seem to handle all the "screams" and fatal errors that I get. How do I handle this. Just a beginner and trust you can explain in a way that I may be able to understand..
<?php
for ($num = 1; $num <= 20; ++$num){
$_array1 = str_split($num);
//print_r($_array1);
//echo "<br/>";
$_array2 = array_reverse($_array1);
//print_r($_array2);
//echo "<br/>";
$i = 0;
$j = 0;
while ($i < sizeof($_array1) && $j < sizeof($_array2)){
if ($_array1[$i] == $_array2[$j]){
++$i;
++$j;
}
}
if ($_array1[$i] == $_array2[$j]){
echo "The number $num is a Palindrome Number";
}
}
?>

Answer 1

You get to the size of elements, which is 1. However, if your array has only one element, which is the case for 1-digit numbers, then sizeof($_array) === 1. Which means that the biggest possible index you can use is 0. You need to change your code to something like this:
<?php
for ($num = 1; $num <= 20; ++$num){
$_array1 = str_split($num);
//print_r($_array1);
//echo "<br/>";
$_array2 = array_reverse($_array1);
//print_r($_array2);
//echo "<br/>";
$i = 0;
$j = 0;
$different = false;
while ((!$different) && ($i < sizeof($_array1))){
if ($_array1[$i] == $_array2[$j]){
++$i;
++$j;
} else {
$different = true;
}
}
if (!$different){
echo "The number $num is a Palindrome Number";
}
}
?>
But you are inversing the array without a need to do so and you are looping for unnecessarily long. I propose this function to determine whether an array is a palindrome:
function isPalindrome($input) {
$size = count($input);
for ($index = 0; $index < $size / 2; $index++) {
if ($input[$index] != $input[$size - $index - 1]) {
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
Note, that:
the function assumes that the keys of the array are numbers
the function uses a single array
the size of the array is stored into a local variable to not calculate it repeatedly
the cycle cycles until half of the array, since going beyond that is unnecessary, due to the symmetrical nature of the != operator
the function returns false when the first difference is found, to further optimize the checking
if there were no differences, the function returns true, representing that the input is a palindrome