php if time with random number - php

Question

I'm trying to echo a random date in a PHP loop, the code works for "if the post is 3 months old", then I want to get today's date, and minus the "random" number, eg will echo a date based on this number.
Everything is working, but not the $number. Can someone please tell me where I'm going wrong?
<?php
$post_age = date('U') - get_the_time('U');
if($post_age > 7884000 ) {
?>
<?php $number = 'UniqueRandomNumbersWithinRange(0,25,5)'; ?>
<?php echo date('jS F', strtotime("now -'.$number.' days") ); ?>
<?php } else {?>
<?php } ?>
with function:
function UniqueRandomNumbersWithinRange($min, $max, $quantity) {
$numbers = range($min, $max);
shuffle($numbers);
return array_slice($numbers, 0, $quantity);
}
Thanks :)

Answer 1

Two issues that I see there which are likely causing the issue, there are two occasions where you are turning things into strings but don't want to:
for
this isn't running the function because it's between single quotes ' ' so you want to remove them
<?php $number = UniqueRandomNumbersWithinRange(0,25,5); ?>
and for
You are mixing different types of quotes and so $number isn't really being called. You likely want to adjust it to something like:
<?php echo date('jS F', strtotime("now -".$number." days") ); ?>

Answer 2

You are confusing strings and functions several times in your code, as James' answer says.
Also, your UniqueRandomNumbersWithinRange() function returns an array. This cannot be written to a string.
<?php
$post_age = date('U') - get_the_time('U');
if($post_age > 7884000) {
$number = fetchRandoms(0, 25, 5);
echo date('jS F', strtotime("now -" . $number . " days") );
} else {
// la dee da
}
function fetchRandoms($min, $max, $amt) {
$result = '';
for ($i = 0; $i < $amt; $i++) {
$result .= mt_rand($min, $max);
}
return $result;
}