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twinkle
Joined: 31 Jan 2006
Posts: 79
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 Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2006 9:17 pm Post subject: Pulling random entry from a file |
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I have a database of quotes and I want to pull a random entry from the database but I would like the random input to be seeded by user interaction, be it a single keystroke or even better a word.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to implement this?
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mikelbeck
Joined: 31 Jan 2006
Posts: 18
Location: Lawn Guyland, Noo Yawk
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| Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2006 10:18 pm Post subject: |
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| What do you mean by "seeded by user action"? You want a user to enter something and then you pull a quote that matches? |
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paul
Joined: 11 Oct 2004
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| Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 1:04 am Post subject: |
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You can use the current time as a unique seed. I mean the time the user clicked...
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twinkle
Joined: 31 Jan 2006
Posts: 79
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| Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 6:29 am Post subject: |
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| mikelbeck wrote: | | What do you mean by "seeded by user action"? You want a user to enter something and then you pull a quote that matches? |
Paul mentions the time as a seed, and that would work, but I want the user to feel like they are having an impact on the randomness. So I want to have them enter a short text string of whatever they want and use that to seed the random number that then pulls the entry from the database.
I guess I could just lie to the user and use the time, but I would rather just have the value of the text work as the seed, if possible.
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mikelbeck
Joined: 31 Jan 2006
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Location: Lawn Guyland, Noo Yawk
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| Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 11:21 am Post subject: |
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| Say you have 100 records in your database, you could use the seconds from the time the user entered their information to pull a record. |
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twinkle
Joined: 31 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 1:14 pm Post subject: |
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| mikelbeck wrote: | | Say you have 100 records in your database, you could use the seconds from the time the user entered their information to pull a record. |
Hmm.. Okay I guess that would work. Can I not just use the ascii value (or whatever) of the text and add it together or something? Would that be possible. I honestly do not know why I am going to all the trouble, nobody would actually know except for me, but I would feel better if it worked as I presented it.
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