Question

So I have a multidimensional array, containing 36 arrays.

I want for a page to display an “Item of the day” in the way that each array is only available for a specific date, and then not again until all the other array have been featured on other days first. The collection doesn’t necessarily need to be randomized.

This is not a duplicate of this because in my case I cannot edit or even do direct queries on any database, nor can I write to files or anything else to permanently mark that an item has been featured.

I can however store perhaps a variable containing the initiation date, which could be used as a reference point to somehow calculate which array should be displayed on the current date.

However, math was never my strong suite so I don’t know how to do such very very complex calculations. Nor do I have the programming heft to know if this concept is even the best one.

What do you suggest?

Answer 1

I’m not sure if this counts, but you could do modulo operation on the current date:

$messages = array('hi, how are you', 'nice weather eh?', 'get lost!');
$idx = floor(time() / 86400) % count($messages);

echo $messages[$idx];

Every day it will pick one for that whole day; then move to the next, etc. At the end it goes back to the beginning.

It’s sort of random what the first item will be, but after that it’s sequential.