Posted by Norman Peelman on 05/04/07 02:18

blessblessbless@gmail.com wrote:
> Hey all,
> I am self taught in PHP and my method is just trial and error most of
> the time, but when trying doe not help anymore I get frustrated... I'm
> sure some of you know what I mean.
>
> My problem is with a recursive(referring back to itself) function I am
> trying to write.
> The function works well on its own, and it also works recursively as
> many times as I want it to.
> I am going to give you a lite version of the function because it
> doesn't really matter what it does.
>
> global $counter;
> $counter=0;
> function recursion($value){
> $counter++;
> if ($counter > 10){exit("Recursion exceeded limit!");}
>
> $newvalue= blabla something with $value
>
> if (condition applies){recursion($newvalue);}
> return $newvalue;
> $counter=0;
> }
>
> SO my problem is, the counter is not working. I know it has something
> to do with the fact that functions use their own variables, buts that
> is why I thought to set the counter as global :/
> Anybody have an idea why it wont stop and my apache crashes when I try
> to repeat the function limitless? (ok i know why it crashes, just not
> why the function does not stop;
>

function recursion($value){
static $counter;
$counter++;
if ($counter > 10){exit("Recursion exceeded limit!");}

$newvalue= blabla something with $value

if (condition applies){recursion($newvalue);}
return $newvalue;
$counter=0;
}

$the_value = recursion(5);

The 'static' keyword causes the $counter variable to retain it's value.

Norm

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