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Re: Most efficient way to randomize a quiz from a database [message #170570 is a reply to message #170568]

Mon, 08 November 2010 18:52

Mason Barge
Messages: 5
Registered: November 2010

Karma:

Junior Member

On Mon, 8 Nov 2010 11:45:16 -0500, "Matthew Leonhardt"
<matt(at)mattleonhardtmusic(dot)com> wrote:

> "Mason Barge" <masonbarge(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote in message
> news:s87gd61ldtnkeuuc817uiej2qmv0s4vc88(at)4ax(dot)com...
>> I'm creating a quiz using PHP 5.3 and MySQL (mysqli). The database has
>> about 1000 questions and answers, in categories, and I want to ask 12
>> randomly selected questions, one at a time.
>>
>> Which would be more efficient:
>>
>> 1) Make one call to the database and build an array, stored in session
>> variables, of 12 randomly chosen rows; or
>
> Most likely this method. You're talking about a fairly small amount of data
> though, so I highly doubt you need to be worried about efficiency...
>
>> 2) Make 12 requests to the database?
>>
>> I'm open to other general approaches if anyone has a suggestion I haven't
>> considered.
>
> You could also opt for a hybrid solution...generate a session array
> containing 12 primary keys and then with each page load, just pop the next
> question, so to speak :)

Yeah that's what I'd do.

>> I'd like to avoid reloading the page after every answer and I don't see
>> how I could use Ajax with #1. The quiz has to be in PHP because I need to
>> generate the final score as a PHP variable, not a javascript variable.
>
> I don't see how #1 prevents an AJAX solution. What's your cause for worry
> about that? Regarding the language in which the final score is calculated,
> look at json_encode() and json_decode() for convenient data-passing between
> the two languages.
>

Thanks so much, I've been out of touch with PHP for a long time and didn't
know about JSON. It solves so many problems with this kind of thing.

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[Message index]

		Most efficient way to randomize a quiz from a database By: Mason Barge on Mon, 08 November 2010 16:08
		Re: Most efficient way to randomize a quiz from a database By: Captain Paralytic on Mon, 08 November 2010 16:26
		Re: Most efficient way to randomize a quiz from a database By: Matthew Leonhardt on Mon, 08 November 2010 16:45
		Re: Most efficient way to randomize a quiz from a database By: Mason Barge on Mon, 08 November 2010 18:52
		Re: Most efficient way to randomize a quiz from a database By: Erwin Moller on Tue, 09 November 2010 09:48
		Re: Most efficient way to randomize a quiz from a database By: Matthew Leonhardt on Tue, 09 November 2010 14:55
		Re: Most efficient way to randomize a quiz from a database By: Erwin Moller on Tue, 09 November 2010 16:09
		Re: Most efficient way to randomize a quiz from a database By: Matthew Leonhardt on Tue, 09 November 2010 18:46

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