I'm trying to tell the script, If variable $shawn equals the same thing twice don't display the result. I'd appreciate if someone could help with me with this. Thanks.

<?php

$shawn = 'shawn';

$i = 0;

while($i < 5) {
	
	echo ''.$shawn++.'<br />';
	//if variable $shawn equals the same thing twice then do not display it.
	
	$i++;
	
}


?>

To answer your question:

PHP Code:

$last;

while($i < 5) {
     if($shawn != $last)
          echo $shawn;

     $last = $shawn
} 


There are a couple things I see that are wrong with your code. The first being that $shawn is set to a string so incrementing it doesn't make sense:

PHP Code:

$shawn = 'shawn'; //$shawn is a string
$shawn++; //increment $shawn doesn't make sense 


The other thing, while technically not 'wrong', is something I see constantly but I don't know why. There is no need to append empty strings to variables:

PHP Code:

echo ''.$shawn.'<br />'; 


is effectively identical to:

PHP Code:

echo $shawn . '<br />'; 


I'm not sure why some people do that, but it is completely unnecessary.

perhaps the people/resources these people go to for their instructions with PHP are teaching them to do it this way? That's the only thing I can think of.

kind of like some people favouring the if else statement(s) over switch statements, and others (over)utilizing switch when a simple if else will get the job done.

Originally Posted by NullPointer

To answer your question:

PHP Code:

$last;

while($i < 5) {
     if($shawn != $last)
          echo $shawn;

     $last = $shawn
} 


There are a couple things I see that are wrong with your code. The first being that $shawn is set to a string so incrementing it doesn't make sense:

PHP Code:

$shawn = 'shawn'; //$shawn is a string
$shawn++; //increment $shawn doesn't make sense 


The other thing, while technically not 'wrong', is something I see constantly but I don't know why. There is no need to append empty strings to variables:

PHP Code:

echo ''.$shawn.'<br />'; 


is effectively identical to:

PHP Code:

echo $shawn . '<br />'; 


I'm not sure why some people do that, but it is completely unnecessary.

Thanks bro works, Also the reason I put the ++ on the variable is because I wanted it to randomize the string I was confirming it wasn't just repeating but repeating the same value.

<?php

$shawn = 'shawn';

$i = 0;

while($i < 5) {

if ($shawn != 'shawn'){

echo $shawn;
}

}


?>