Question

I’m trying to create a random quote generator. I have created a function called timer that runs another function pickQuote every 400ms but at the moment this doesn’t seem to work. in pickQuote I run a function randomNumberGen that creates a random number. My problem in the randomNumberGen is that I want to have an if or if..else in place that checks whether or not the new random number is different from the current quotes[randomNumber] but i’m unsure how to do this.

Can anyone provide me with some insight on how I can achieve this?

My current effort can be viewed here: http://jsbin.com/aqinud/12/edit

Answer 1

index is not defined outside $.each. Variables in functions are not accessible outside it if you use var.

What I recommend is altering the function as follows:

function randomNumberGen() {

  //generate randomNumber based on length of array
  // round it down (parseInt is for string->number conversion)
  var thisRandomNumber = Math.floor(Math.random() * len);

  if ( randomNumber === thisRandomNumber ) {
    randomNumberGen();
  } else {
    randomNumber = thisRandomNumber;
  }

}

So, first create a random number and only if it’s different from randomNumber, update it with the newly created one. Otherwise, try again.

Also, setTimeout requires a function, so don’t invoke it yet:

runQuotePicker = setInterval(pickQuote, 400);

http://jsbin.com/aqinud/13/edit