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up vote 0 down vote favorite

This code picks 2-6 pitches from the $vec array. I'd like to echo out each individual pitch, but interestingly enough, it gives me the numeric values of the placement of the pitch in the array (ie: 2 5 6 instead of D F F#)

  $pick = rand(2,6);
  $vec = array("C","C#","D","D#","E","F","F#","G","G#","A","A#","B");
  $random_keys = array_rand($vec,$pick);
  foreach ($random_keys as $pitch){
  echo $pitch; echo "<br>";
  }

Why is it doing this and how can I get the pitches instead of the numbers?

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This is the documented behavior. See as well the user-notes on the manual page: php.net/array_rand Also take a look what an array is: php.net/array - you can get the values by those numbers (indexes / keys). –  hakre Jun 9 '13 at 7:33
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1 Answer

up vote 3 down vote

Try this:

$pick = rand(2,6);
$vec = array("C","C#","D","D#","E","F","F#","G","G#","A","A#","B");
$random_keys = array_rand($vec, $pick);
foreach ($random_keys as $key) {
  echo $vec[$key], '<br />';
}

From array_rand() documentation:

Return value

If you are picking only one entry, array_rand() returns the key for a random entry. Otherwise, it returns an array of keys for the random entries. This is done so that you can pick random keys as well as values out of the array.

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ah that's better. thanks. so as to 'why': array_rand produces a selection of keys rather than the values themselves in the array. (that's why in the manual they called the variable random_keys) correct? –  Gregory Tippett Jun 9 '13 at 5:04
 
@GregoryTippett - :) Yup, the documentation mentions array keys. :D. –  Aiias Jun 9 '13 at 5:06
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