how do i randomize a string?

Question

i'm sure this is an easy one, but what would be the best way to randomize text from a string? something like:

$content = "{hey|hi|hello there}! {i am|i'm} {good|great}!";

how can i make the output like this:

hey! i'm good!
hello there! i am great!
etc..

• john: just an example. it's actually for randomizing articles.

Answer 1

Maybe try something like:

$content = "{hey|hi|hello there}! {i am|i'm} {good|great}!";
$randomOutput = preg_replace('/(\{.*?\})/s', function($matches) {
 $possibilities = (array) explode('|', trim($matches[0], '{}'));
 return $possibilities[array_rand($possibilities)];
}, $content);

---

Version for PHP <5.3

function randomOutputCallback($matches) {
 $possibilities = (array) explode('|', trim($matches[0], '{}'));
 return $possibilities[array_rand($possibilities)];
}
$content = "{hey|hi|hello there}! {i am|i'm} {good|great}!";
$randomOutput = preg_replace('/(\{.*?\})/s', 'randomOutputCallback', $content);

• john: thanks for that i was trying it on 5.1.6. @crozin maybe a solution similar for older php?
• Crozin: @john: I've added equivalent for older versions of PHP.

Answer 2

If you use an array:

$greeting = array("hey","hi","hello there");
$suffix = array("good","great");
$randGreeting = $greeting[rand(0, sizeof($greeting))];
$randSuffix = $suffix[rand(0,(sizeof($suffix)))];
echo "$randGreeting, I'm $randSuffix!";

Of course, you could also write the last line as:

echo $randomGreeting . ", I'm " . $randSuffix . "!";

Answer 3

I would arrange the elements in an array... Something like This Live Demo.

<?php
$responseText = array(
 array("hey","hi","hello there"),
 "! ",
 array("i am", "i'm"),
 " ",
 array("good", "great"),
 "! "
);
echo randomResponse($responseText);
function randomResponse($array){
 $result='';
 foreach ($array as $item){
 if (is_array($item))
 $result.= $item[rand(0, count($item)-1)];
 else
 $result.= $item;
 }
 return ($result);
}
?>