How to randomly select a video and play? - php

Question

Im learning JQuery and php.
Is it possible to store multiple video links within variables and get php to echo one at random??
My goal is to control my own video ads on my site and I thought this would be a good idea but I dont have a clue where I should look online.
Here is what I was thinking
<?php
$advert1 = 'MyVIDEO1.mp4';
$advert2 = 'MyVideo2.mp4';
$advert3 = 'MyVideo3.mp4';
I want a code that would go here and say: randomly select one of these vars.
echo "At random one of the vars";
?>
I hope Im making sense. help?

Answer 1

You could make an array, like this:
$advert[] = array();
$advert[1] = 'MyVIDEO1.mp4';
$advert[2] = 'MyVIDEO2.mp4';
$advert[3] = 'MyVIDEO3.mp4';
$chosen_one = rand(1,count($advert));
echo $advert[$chosen_one];

Answer 2

You can also use array_rand() instead of shuffle():
<?php
$videos = array("MyVIDEO1.mp4", "MyVideo2.mp4", "MyVideo3.mp4");
echo $videos[array_rand($videos)];
?>
For embedding the video in the right way, have a look at http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_videos.asp

Answer 3

For a start, PHP itself won't exactly play a video. You could use it to echo out one of the URL's to a video. So, bear in mind there is a lot more to do than just select a video.
To answer your question in the code I'd recommend the following:
Try looking up PHP arrays. You want to keep all the videos in an array.
Next up, you'll want to shuffle that array. Then select the first element.
$videos = array("MyVIDEO1.mp4", "MyVideo2.mp4", "MyVideo3.mp4");
shuffle($videos);
echo $videos[0];

Answer 4

This is a simple solution
Place your adverts in an array
<?php
$adverts = array("advert1" => "MyVIDEO1.mp4",
"advert2" => "MyVIDEO2.mp4",
"advert3" => "MyVIDEO3.mp4");
$count = count($adverts);
$rand_advert = rand(1, $count);
echo $adverts['advert'.$rand_advert];
?>
Or alternatively if you don't want to have keys and just put the values in the array straight away
<?php
$adverts = array("MyVIDEO1.mp4",
"MyVIDEO2.mp4",
"MyVIDEO3.mp4");
shuffle($adverts);
echo $adverts[0];
?>

Answer 5

You have need all value in a array then find index randomly and show it.
<?php
$advert = array(
'MyVIDEO1.mp4',
'MyVideo2.mp4',
'MyVideo3.mp4'
);
$total_video = count($advert);
$total_video--; //array index starting from 0 so decrease 1
$random_index = rand(0, $total_video); //array index 0 to 2
$video_to_play = $advert[$random_index];
echo $video_to_play;
?>