[todayscoffee]

i have a main 'for' loop and within it i have 4 'while' loops. each sub loop compares a date ( 1 to 4 ) with an $OKdate and makes sure that the OKdate is not before any of the 4 dates, and if the OKdate is then it will add a day (864000 seconds) to the OKdate. since the dates may vary i want to make sure that all dates work. so my question is this one: from the example below am i on the right track if not please HELP, and two how do i get these 4 loops to go back and check all of them until they all work and then end the loop and continue?

example:

PHP Code:

$date1 = 0;

$date2 = 0;

$date3 = 0;

$date4 = 0;

$allOK = 0;



for($allOK = 0; $allOK < 1; ){



if($OKdate < $date1){

while($OKdate < $date1){

$OKdate + 864000;

$date1 = 0;

 }

$date1 = 1;

}

if($OKdate < $date2){

while($OKdate < $date2){

$OKdate + 864000;

$date2 = 0;

 }

$date2 = 1;

}

if($OKdate < $date3){

while($OKdate < $date3){

$OKdate + 864000;

$date3 = 0;

 }

$date3 = 1;

}

if($OKdate < $date4){

while($OKdate < $date4){

$OKdate + 864000;

$date4 = 0;

 }

$date4 = 1;

}



if(($date1 + $date2 + $date3 + $date4) == 4){

$allOK = 1;

}



} 

Please help, i'm totally lost here

[mab]

1) The initial for() loop is not valid syntax and is actually not the way to do a loop like this. You should use a do-while -

PHP Code:

$exit_flag == 0;

do {



// your logic changes the $exit_flag to a non-zero value when it is done



} while ($exit_flag = 0); 

2) From your description, it sounds like you want to increment $OKdate by a day until it is just greater than the highest $datex variable ("makes sure that the $OKdate is not before any of the 4 dates" - which I read to mean, do this until it is higher than all of the 4 dates.) Let us know if this statement is correct and someone can come up with code to do this.

[mab]

Just in case statement #2 is true, here is some code to do this -

PHP Code:

// generate some dates

$date1 = time() + rand(0, 9999999); // some random future date in time

$date2 = time() + rand(0, 9999999); // some random future date in time

$date3 = time() + rand(0, 9999999); // some random future date in time

$date4 = time() + rand(0, 9999999); // some random future date in time

$OKdate = time() + rand(0, 9999999); // some random future date in time



// determine the maximum 

$max_date = max($date1, $date2, $date3, $date4);



// let us see the starting values

echo "d1 = $date1, d2 = $date2, d3 = $date3, d4 = $date4, max = $max_date, OKdate = $OKdate<br>";



// reset the exit flag

$exit_flag = 0; 



// loop until the flag is set to a 1

do {

    if($OKdate < $max_date){

        // value < maximum, add one day

        $OKdate += 864000;

        echo "adding a day, OKdate = $OKdate<br>";

    } else {

        // value >= maximum, done, set the exit flag

        $exit_flag = 1;

        echo "done<br>";

    }

} while ($exit_flag == 0); 

Or more simply (since there is only one thing going on inside the loop, and with some additional delta info) -

PHP Code:

// generate some dates

$date1 = time() + rand(0, 9999999); // some random future date in time

$date2 = time() + rand(0, 9999999); // some random future date in time

$date3 = time() + rand(0, 9999999); // some random future date in time

$date4 = time() + rand(0, 9999999); // some random future date in time

$OKdate = time() + rand(0, 9999999); // some random future date in time



// determine the maximum 

$max_date = max($date1, $date2, $date3, $date4);



// let us see the starting values

echo "d1 = $date1, d2 = $date2, d3 = $date3, d4 = $date4, max = $max_date, OKdate = $OKdate<br>";



while ($OKdate < $max_date){

    $delta = $max_date - $OKdate;

    $OKdate += 864000;

    echo "OKdate is $delta less than the highest date, adding a day, OKdate is now = $OKdate<br>";

}

$delta = $OKdate - $max_date;

echo "done, OKdate is $delta more than the highest date<br>";