Year: 2009

PHP

A Handy alphabet class :)

Another funny class with no serious use. This is a class I wrote to determine the numerical positions of letters in the English alphabet.

How to use ?

<?php
include('alphabet.php');
$a = new alphabet(); // construct the alphabet object
echo $a->getNum('z'); // outputs 26
echo $a->getChar(3); // outputs 'c'
?>

<?php

include('alphabet.php');

$a = new alphabet(); // construct the alphabet object

echo $a->getNum('z'); // outputs 26

echo $a->getChar(3); // outputs 'c'

As you can see, using the getNum() method, you can feed a letter and get the serial number or numerical position of that letter. Again in the same way, use the getChar() method to input a number and get the character/letter in that position.

I use it very often while breaking alphabet related codes.

Source Codes:

<?php
// filename: alphabet.php
// Author: maSnun

class alphabet {
public $num, $alpha,$dict_1,$dict_2;
function __construct() {
$this->num = array(); // placeholder for 1 to 26
$this->alpha = array(); // placeholder for a to z

for($i=1;$i<27;$i++) { $this->num[]= $i; } // dynamically store 1 to 26 in the array
for($i='a';$i<'z';$i++) { $this->alpha[]= $i; } // dynamically store a to y in the array
$this->alpha[] = 'z'; // manually add z to the array
$this->dict_1 = array_combine($this->num,$this->alpha); // combine them to form a dictionary
$this->dict_2 = array_combine($this->alpha,$this->num); // combine them to form a dictionary
}

function getNum($char) { return $this->dict_2[$char]; }
function getChar($n) { return $this->dict_1[$n]; }


}

?>

<?php

// filename: alphabet.php

// Author: maSnun

class alphabet {

public $num, $alpha,$dict_1,$dict_2;

function __construct() {

$this->num = array(); // placeholder for 1 to 26

$this->alpha = array(); // placeholder for a to z

for($i=1;$i<27;$i++) { $this->num[]= $i; } // dynamically store 1 to 26 in the array

for($i='a';$i<'z';$i++) { $this->alpha[]= $i; } // dynamically store a to y in the array

$this->alpha[] = 'z'; // manually add z to the array

$this->dict_1 = array_combine($this->num,$this->alpha); // combine them to form a dictionary

$this->dict_2 = array_combine($this->alpha,$this->num); // combine them to form a dictionary

}

function getNum($char) { return $this->dict_2[$char]; }

function getChar($n) { return $this->dict_1[$n]; }

}

PHP

Decoding Google’s Tweet With PHP

Post author By masnun
Post date September 5, 2009
2 Comments on Decoding Google’s Tweet With PHP

This is something for fun — nothing serious. It just happened that Google just sent a mysterious Tweet around 2 hours ago from now with an image with of the Google home page featuring an UFO. The UFO was seen pulling an O out of the google logo. But what the heck does that tweet mean ?

1.12.12 25.15.21.18 15 1.18.5 2.5.12.15.14.7 20.15 21.19 was the tweet.

Well, it’s nothing tough. Every number separated by a dot or space corresponds to the alphabet. So, I wrote a PHP script to decode this mysterious tweet and finally found the meaning:

masnun@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ php decode-google-tweet
all your o are belong to us
masnun@ubuntu:~/Desktop$

masnun@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ php decode-google-tweet

all your o are belong to us

masnun@ubuntu:~/Desktop$

So, it meant ” all your o are belong to us ” 😉
Sounds a bit odd ? Or wrong in grammar ? yeah, still, that’s the message. It is confirmed on the twitpic image.

And here’s the source code —

<?php

$num = array(); // placeholder for 1 to 26
$alpha = array(); // placeholder for a to z

for($i=1;$i<27;$i++) { $num[]= $i; } // dynamically store 1 to 26 in the array
for($i='a';$i<'z';$i++) { $alpha[]= $i; } // dynamically store a to y in the array
$alpha[] = 'z'; // manually add z to the array
$dict = array_combine($num,$alpha); // combine them to form a dictionary

// print_r($dict);

$string = "1.12.12 25.15.21.18 15 1.18.5 2.5.12.15.14.7 20.15 21.19"; // the code to decode
$arr = explode(" ",$string); // differentiate the parts

$meaning = ""; // placeholder for the ultimate meaning

for($i=0; $i<count($arr); $i++) {

$s = $arr[$i]; // dot seperated portions
$a = explode(".",$s); // seperate the numbers
for($j=0; $j<count($a); $j++) {
$ch = $a[$j]; // get individual numbers
$meaning .= $dict[$ch]; // look up in the dictionary for the corresponding char
 }
$meaning .=" "; // restore the spaces


}

echo $meaning."\n"; // echo the meaning

?>

<?php

$num = array(); // placeholder for 1 to 26

$alpha = array(); // placeholder for a to z

for($i=1;$i<27;$i++) { $num[]= $i; } // dynamically store 1 to 26 in the array

for($i='a';$i<'z';$i++) { $alpha[]= $i; } // dynamically store a to y in the array

$alpha[] = 'z'; // manually add z to the array

$dict = array_combine($num,$alpha); // combine them to form a dictionary

// print_r($dict);

$string = "1.12.12 25.15.21.18 15 1.18.5 2.5.12.15.14.7 20.15 21.19"; // the code to decode

$arr = explode(" ",$string); // differentiate the parts

$meaning = ""; // placeholder for the ultimate meaning

for($i=0; $i<count($arr); $i++) {

$s = $arr[$i]; // dot seperated portions

$a = explode(".",$s); // seperate the numbers

for($j=0; $j<count($a); $j++) {

$ch = $a[$j]; // get individual numbers

$meaning .= $dict[$ch]; // look up in the dictionary for the corresponding char

}

$meaning .=" "; // restore the spaces

}

echo $meaning."\n"; // echo the meaning

It was quite a bit of fun decoding the message with PHP. Well, I do agree that there was no need to use PHP here. But why do the hard work from memory when you have automation tools at your hand 😉 ?

PHP

PHP: Counting Occurrences with PCRE

Post author By masnun
Post date September 5, 2009

While playing with PHP, I have found a fact that we can determine how many times a string occurs inside another string quite easily by using PCRE. In fact, we can use preg_match_all() to match a string (instead of a complex pattern) to another string and get the matches as an array. Then we count() the array’s first key to know how many times the string has been found in the other one.

We feed preg_match_all() a solid string as a pattern as the first parameter. And it’d do the job for us.

Here’s the code snippet:

<?php

$string = "my name is masnun. i am Masnun. my website is maSnun.com";
preg_match_all("/masnun/i",$string,$m);
print_r($m);

echo "\n";
echo count($m[0])." occurrences found \n\n";

?>

<?php

$string = "my name is masnun. i am Masnun. my website is maSnun.com";

preg_match_all("/masnun/i",$string,$m);

print_r($m);

echo "\n";

echo count($m[0])." occurrences found \n\n";

In the above example, we add an “i” modifier for case insensitive matching. If you want it to be a case sensitive matching, just ignore the “i” modifier.

Results:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => masnun
            [1] => Masnun
            [2] => maSnun
        )

)

3 occurrences found

Array

(

[0] => Array

(

[0] => masnun

[1] => Masnun

[2] => maSnun

)

3 occurrences found

Additionally this method can be used instead of strpos() when we try to find if a string exists in another.

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