A Fun Challenge - by Shellshock

Hi All, after completing Lessons 1,2 and 3. I did some playing around with loops and arrays etc and Have come up with a fun Challenge - if you up for it!?

The challenge is to print a Diamond to screen - any size

#
##
###
####
###
##
#

you can use hashes or any character you wish.
The trick is to do it programatically with php - so none of this echo "#" then br and echo "##" br echo "###" etc etc
You will need to use loops - And you can do it without using functions.

The Winner is the person who can do it with the least amount of code.

A tip : work on half your diamond first - then the other half.

I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with

--Nicholas Karlsen

Seems like only half my Diamond has come out in my post above !
Buy you all know what a diamond looks like.

Sup shellshock,

jeesh dud3 your ch@lleng3 w@z tough!

It took m3 thr33 dayz to work it out. Not three full days though, but it was tough non the less.

Here's the cod3:

<?php
$n = 0;
$z = 1;

//this loop is to make the script write 3 lines
for($i=1; $i<=3; $i++)
{
//this loop is used to write the actual "#"
for ($b=$i-$n; $b<=$i+$n; $b++)
{
//this loop is to space the "#" into a diamonnd.
//i didn't know what to used for the spacing. I tried " " but the spacing wouldn't show.
for ($c=$i+$z; $c>=$i; $c--)
{
echo "|||";
}
echo "#";
$z--;
}
echo "<br/>";
$n++;
}

$n = 2;
$z = 0;

//this loop is to make the script to write 2 lines
for($i=3; $i<=4; $i++)
{
////this loop is used to write the actual "#"
for ($b=$i; $b>=$i-$n ; $b--)
{
//this loop is to space the "#" into a diamonnd.
//i didn't know what to used for the spacing. I tried " " but the spacing wouldn't show.
for ($c=$i; $c>=$i+$z; $c--)
{
echo "|||";
}
echo "#";
$z = $z + 1;
}
echo "<br/>";
$n = $n - 2;
$z = -1;
}

/* writen by theSinthesizer 2010|07|25 */
?>

Shot for the challenge shellshock!

PS: guyz please keep submitting challenge ideaz; it's good practice for everyone.
PPS: i think also if someone can come up with an idea for a project that we can all work on colleboratively - open source stuff.

>>>
The One that owns The Technology rulez the world!

You should try coding while listening to drum n bass or dubstep. Mad trip!

>>>
The One that owns The Technology rulez the world!

<?PHP
echo "#<br/>##<br/>###<br/>####<br/>###<br/>##<br/>#<br/>"
?>

Hey guys - paste code here using the tags generated by formatted code button here above

Language: PHP
<?PHP
echo "#<br/>##<br/>###<br/>####<br/>###<br/>##<br/>#<br/>"
?>

Hi Mac,

can you please rephrase your post because i don't get what u mean?

>>>
The One that owns The Technology rulez the world!

Yo xmgcoyi,

ur code is not quite a diamond dude.

"Be true to the game, because the game will be true to you. If you try to shortcut the game, then the game will shortcut you." - Michael Jordan

>>>
The One that owns The Technology rulez the world!

When you post PHP code to this forum, then use the 4th button from the right on the submission form menu to generate two tags

Language: PHP
[code="php"]
and then you paste or type your code here between these tags esnuring that your code is displayed correctly
[ /code]

Hey theSinthesizer
Glad you enjoyed the Challenge.
Good Going on your solution.

Im including my spin on the solving this challenge - let me know what you think : -)

Language: PHP
<?php
$character="#";
$startNum="1";
$endNum="20";
for ($l=$startNum ; $l <= $endNum ; $l++ ){
	for ($j=$l ; $j <= $endNum ; $j++){
		print "&nbsp";
		}
		for ($i=$l ; $i >= $startNum ; $i-- ){
		print "$character";
		}
		print "<br>";
	}
for ($l=$endNum ; $l >= $startNum ; $l-- ){
	for ($i=$l ; $i <= $endNum ; $i++ ){
		print "&nbsp";
		}
		for ($j=$l ; $j >= $startNum ; $j--){
			print "$character";
		}
		print "<br>";		
}
?>

Im not sure if this can be done any more efficiently ??
Lets see.

Hey theSinthesizer
By the way - excellent job on the comments for your code.
Made it much easier to read than mine. :-\

I think shellshock has the best solution, i cant come up with anything better.

How about a new challenge? Any ideas Mac?

Write code that will predict the lotto winning numbers?

haha, if I could figure that out id have to test the program first!

Here you go Mac:

<?php
$lotto = array();
for ($count=0; $count != 6; $count++) {
$numbers = rand(1,50)." ";
if(!in_array($numbers,$lotto)) {
$lotto[] = $numbers;
echo $numbers ;
}
}
?>

Hey, I do not need random numbers - I require WINNING numbers

Lol i though about that to, I can try and code luck into it but that might take a while

Something I have noticed with php is that you do not have to keep repeating echo "" statements.

you can do an

echo "
Many lines of code here
"; and the end your echo as normal.


There is also something called apples and oranges with php.

Apples and oranges basically refers to starting with an html echo or print and then needing to drop out of html, inject some php and drop back into html, by concatenating php to the print or echo without the breaking the flow.

What do I mean?
Well here is an example.

Language: PHP
echo ("My Name is ". $name ." and I am " .$age . "years old");

Another nifty tip with php is using phpinfo

Try this code

Language: PHP
<?php
phpinfo ();
?>

phpinfo prints php server and config specific information about your php installation.

Last tip is the following

Language: PHP
print ($_SERVER[';SERVER_NAME';]."<br>");
print ($_SERVER[';HTTP_USER_AGENT';]."<br>");
print ($_SERVER[';REMOTE_ADDR';]."<br>");

Info retrieved from phpinfo - usefull / powerfull stuff as i am sure you can imagine.

There is no need to concatenate - you can write

Language: PHP
echo "My Name is $name and I am $age years old";

PHP scans and parses the contents within double quotation marks for variables or special characters. When using single quotation marks it doesn't parse for variables or special characters, so there may be a slight increase in speed if you do this (or say they say).

Language: PHP
echo ';My Name is ';. $name .'; and I am '; .$age . ';years old';;

No why do I then say there is no need? Well, the speed benefit you derive from using the latter is hardly noticeable judged against the time it will take you to write concatenated code. This does not mean that you should not concatenate, but is is more a matter of preference than anything else. If you are unsure, then do a test page, one concatenated and one not. But it needs to be a long page.

And btw, this is breaking out of HTML

Language: PHP
<body><p><?php echo $name; ?> said that he is tired</p></body>

Also a good tool to use is <pre> </pre> tags it sort off work like print but it outputs your php scripts in easy to read html