Question

Here is a function in PHP that generates a random number between 1 and 15 and store that number in a array and keep calling itself to repeat until the array contains five elements, at which point, you can make it either print/echo out the elements of the array or return the array. My problem is that when I try to get it to return the array and assign it to the variable $result, I get nothing. Any ideas as to what’s going on?

$storenumbers = array();

function storemynumbers($storenumbers){
    $number = rand(1,15);

    if(count($storenumbers) == 5){
        echo "Done<br/>";
        print_r($storenumbers);
        //return $storenumbers;
    }else{
        echo $number."<br/>";
        $storenumbers[] = $number;
        storemynumbers($storenumbers);
    }
}

//$result = storemynumbers($storenumbers);
//print_r($result);

storemynumbers($storenumbers);

Answer 1

Because you are only returning anything on the last run, which gets passed back to the next-to-last run, which is then dropped.

In your else block, try adding return in front of storemynumbers($storenumbers). This should pass the return value all the way back down the chain.

That said, why can’t you just do:

$storenumbers = Array();
for( $i=0; $i<5; $i++) $storenumbers[] = rand(1,15);
print_r($storenumbers);