How can I generate a random number every x amount of months? - php

Question

Starting with the number 9 and using php, I would like to be able to count up from there, and echo out the next number in increments of 1.
So, number 9, then after 1 month the number would change to 10, then another month 11, then 12 etc., with no maximum number/stop point.
How can I accomplish this? So far I have the below code.
$number = 9;
$output = $number + 1;
echo $output;
Is there a way to set this to increase once a month?

Answer 1

You can do this with the PHP date()-function. This is one example of doing it if you are not dependent on the day of the month, but adding day functionality is possible and should be quit easy.
$startNumber = 9;
$startYear = 2015;
$startMonth = 9;
$currentYear = intval( date( "Y" ) );
$currentMonth = intval( date( "n" ) );
$monthsToAdd = ( ( $currentYear - $startYear ) * 12 )
+ ( $currentMonth - $startMonth );
echo $startNumber + $monthsToAdd;

Answer 2

From your question, I'd say:
$number = 9;
$output = date('n') + $number;
echo $output;
But that depends on what you are trying to accomplish. You can also wrap the number around the date() with a modulo.
However this is nothing random. If you want to create a random number every month like your topic suggests, use the month as the random seed.
srand(date('n'));
$number = rand();

Answer 3

a very inefficient way would be
<?php
function increm($duration){
while ($i<$duration) {
$i++;
}
return true;
}
$number = 9;
$start = time();
$i = 0;
while (1){
increm(3600*24*30);
$i++;
// Do your code
}
?>
this script would have to be run continuously for months.
A better way would be
<?php
$number = 9;
if(!file_exists('date.txt')){
$date=date('n');
file_put_contents( (string)time());
$date = 0;
}
else{
$date= file_get_contents('date.txt');
$date= date()-(int)$date;
$date= floor($date/(24*3600*30));
}
// do whatever you may
?>
But this script would increase it whenever called as the first open date would be stored. Will work forever (till UNIX can timestamp).

Answer 4

for this purpose you have to store the number in the database, compare with current unix timestamp and update it when the new month is reached.
2 database columns: count_month int(10) and next_month int(10) where next_month will contain the unix timestamp of the first day of the next month. you can run it with cronjobs or on production.
<?php
$now = strtotime("now");
$next_month = strtotime("first day of next month");
if ($query = $dbconnect->prepare("SELECT next_month FROM table1")) {
$query->execute();
$query->bind_result($compare_time);
$query->store_result();
$row_count = $query->num_rows;
if ($row_count > 0) {
while ($query->fetch()) {
if ($compare_time < $now) { // you reached the 1th of the next month time to update
if ($query2 = $dbconnect->prepare("UPDATE table1 SET count_month=count_month +1, next_month=?")) {
$query2->bind_param('i', $next_month);
$query2->execute();
$query2->close();
}
}
}
}
$query->free_result();
$query->close();
}
?>