Bingo Card Generator

Written by: NetworkError, on 24-10-2008 09:36
Last update: 01-05-2009 08:47
Published in: Public, Technical Wootness
Views: 1446

Some friends of mine recently came up with some great General Conference Bingo cards. Hilarity ensued. The only problem was there were only 4 cards. This got me thinking, "how hard would it be to write a random Bingo card generator?" The answer - kinda' hard but not really. So I whipped a little something up over my lunch hour. It's nothing too fancy, but it was a fun problem-solving challenge.

Features:
I wanted some extra whistles and bells with my Bingo card generator.

Variable width
Variable height
Variable "FREE" square in the middle (Calculated from the width and height settings)
Variable word list
Intelligent "no repeat word" logic (Only re-use words when the word list has been used up.)
Generate CSV or HTML

Try out the DIY Bing Card Generator.

The Bingo Cards Class:
The class that does all the work is the Bingo class. The rest of the site is a page for setting up inputs and a page for passing the inputs to an instance of the class. Simple.

/**
* @file
* This class and file handle the actual building of your bingo cards.
**/

class Bingo
{
    /**
    * Width,Height
    * @var int
    **/
    protected $width;
    protected $height;

    /**
    * Free square in the middle?
    * @var int
    **/
    protected $free = true;

    /**
    * Word list array.
    * Exploded on \n
    * @var array
    **/
    protected $list = array();

    public function setList($list)
    {
        $this->list = explode("\n", $list);
        if (is_array($this->list)) {
            foreach ($this->list as &$item) {
                $item = trim($item);
            }
        } else {
            $this->list = array('Error: No list specified.');
        }
    }

    /**
    * Set width/height.
    * @param int $width
    * @param int $height
    **/
    public function setSize($width, $height)
    {
        $this->width = (int)$width;
        $this->height = (int)$height;
    }

    /**
    * Set free square to bool true/false.
    * @param bool $free
    **/
    public function setFreeSquare($free)
    {
        $this->free = (bool)$free;
    }

    /**
    * Return HTML table for bingo card.
    * @return        HTML for bingo card.
    **/
    public function generateHTML()
    {
        $array = $this->generateArray();
        if (!$array)
            return 'No list specified.';

        $html = '

';
        $count = count($array);
        for ($i = 0; $i < $count; $i++) {
            $html .= '';
        }
        $html .= '

';
$html .= implode('

', $array[$i]);
$html .= '

';

        return $html;
    }

    /**
    * Return CSV data for bingo card.
    * @return        CSV for bingo card.
    **/
    public function generateCSV()
    {
        $array = $this->generateArray();
        if (!$array)
            return 'No list specified.';

        $html = '# Begin card
';
        $count = count($array);
        for ($i = 0; $i < $count; $i++) {
            $html .= implode(',', $array[$i]);
            $html .= '
';
        }

        return $html;
    }

    /**
    * Return a bingo array.
    * @return        array(
    *                row_number => array(
    *                    col_number => cell 1x1,
    *                    col_number => cell 1x2,
    *                     ...
    *                ),
    *                ...
    *            );
    **/
    public function generateArray()
    {
         if (count($this->list) == 0) {
            return false;
        }

        // Figure out where the middle square is if it's "Free".
        if ($this->free) {
            $mid_height = round(($this->height / 2) - .1);
            $mid_width = round(($this->width / 2) - .1);
        }

        $array = array();
        $used_keys = array();
        for ($row = 0; $row < $this->height; $row++) {
            for ($col = 0; $col < $this->width; $col++) {
                // Free square?
                if ($this->free && $mid_height == $row && $mid_width == $col) {
                    $array[$row][$col] = 'FREE';
                } else {
                    // Don't lock up because the used_keys array is full.
                    if (count($this->list) == count($used_keys)) {
                        $used_keys = array();
                    }
                    do {
                        $key = array_rand($this->list);
                    } while (in_array($key, $used_keys));
                    $used_keys[] = $key;
                    $array[$row][$col] = $this->list[$key];
                }
            }
        }

        return $array;
    }
}