Question

Let’s say I have this code:

<?php

$aLevel[] = 98;

function experience($L) {
 $a=0;
  for($x=1; $x<$L; $x++) {
    $a += floor($x+300*pow(2, ($x/7)));
    $aLevel[$x-1] = $a; // we minus one to comply with array
  }
 return floor($a/4);
}

for($L=1;$L<100;$L++) {
 echo 'Level '.$L.': '. number_format(experience($L)). '<br />';
}

echo $aLevel[0]; // Level 1 should output 0 exp
echo "<br />" . $aLevel[1]; // Level 2 should output 83 exp
// et cetera
?>

I am trying to make an array to store the exp. So level 1 would be $aLevel[0] and the EXP would be 0 (obviously) and level 2 would be $aLevel[1] and EXP would be 83 and so on.

The code below… it works. The experience and level loop works but the array doesn’t.

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Aside from your scoping issue (the $aLevel used inside the function is not the same as outside), you are calculating the experience WAY too many times. When $L = 98, you calculate experience for levels 1-97 and then when $L = 99 you do them all over again. Also, you’re dividing your return value by 4 but not the values you’re storing in the array.

Assuming I understand the algorithm you’re going for, this is how I might do it:

function getExperienceByLevel ($maxLevel)
{
  $levels = array ();
  $current = 0;
  for ($i = 1; $i <= $maxLevel; $i++){
    $levels[$i - 1] = floor ($current / 4);
    $current +=  floor($i+300*pow(2, ($i/7)));
  }
  return $levels;
}


$aLevels = getExperienceByLevel (100);
for ($i = 0; $i < 100; $i++)
{
  echo 'Level ' . ($i + 1) . ': '. number_format($aLevels[$i]) . "<br />\n";
}