Random number of divs with random number of elements with PHP - php

Question

I need to generate random number of divs with five items per div (and remaining items in the last div) from random number of $totalItems and also not all the items satisfy $OKItems... Hopefully the code explains better than me.
My problem is that this script generates empty divs with no content in them.
<?php
$OKItems = 0;
$totalItems = rand(2,30);
for ($i = 0; $i < $totalItems; $i++) {
echo ($OKItems == 0 || $OKItems % 5 == 0) ? 'div open<br />' : '';
$testValue = rand(0, 1);
if ($testValue != 0) {
echo '1';
$OKItems++;
}
echo ($OKItems % 5 == 0 || $i+1 == $totalItems) ? '<br />div close<br />' : '';
}
?>
This is what I might get:
div open
div close
div open
11111
div close
div open
div close
div open
div close
div open
11
div close
And this is what I would have wanted in this case:
div open
11111
div close
div open
11
div close

Answer 1

<?php
const N = 5;
$totalItems = rand(2,30);
$items = array() ;
for ($i = 0; $i < $totalItems; $i++) {
$testValue = rand(0, 1);
if ($testValue != 0) {
$items[] = 1 ;
}
if( N == sizeof($items) || (($i == $totalItems - 1) && 0 < sizeof($items)) ) {
echo "<div>" . join(",", $items) . "</div>";
$items = array() ;
}
}

Answer 2

I think you need a bit more structure to your code.
My approach would be to break it up into several stages, as opposed to trying to do all the logic in the loop that outputs data.
What I'd suggest:
Decide how many items to be tested
Test each item and only copy the ones that pass into a new array
Partition this new array into sets of 5
Output each partition as a div
Code (untested):
// Decide how many items to test
$totalItems = rand(2,30);
// Test these items and add them to an accepted array
$items = Array();
for ($i = 0; $i < $totalItems; $i++) {
$testValue = rand(0, 1);
if ($testValue != 0) { $items[] = "1" }
}
//Partition them into sections
$partitions = array_chunk($items,5);
//Output as divs
foreach($partitions as $partition):
echo 'div open <br />';
foreach($partition as $item):
echo $item . "<br />";
endforeach;
echo 'div close <br />';
endforeach;
When you split up the code into logical steps, it becomes much easier to maintain and debug.

Answer 3

<?php
$OKItems = 0;
$totalItems = rand(2,30);
for ($i = 0; $i < $totalItems; $i++) {
echo ($OKItems == 0 || $OKItems % 5 == 0) ? 'div open<br>' : '';
$testValue = rand(0, 1);
if ($testValue != 0) {
echo '1';
$OKItems++;
}
if($OKItems % 5 == 0 || $i+1 == $totalItems) {
echo '<br>div close<br>';
$OKItems = 0;
}
}
?>
That should be working ;)
I changed your check line for an if function that also resets your $OKItems. The problem you had (i think) was that you got a 0 as the random value and that would keep $OKitems on 5.