PHP - Php Every Possible Sequence

the title sounds quite ridiculous but i dont know how else to put it...

i want to return results, but my site has got quite popular, quicker than i would have thought. i want to paginate the results.

but i want the results to appear at random.

but the results should not appear twice...

can this even be done? any questions...?

thanks!

I have this function I use to simplify things.

function search_string( $needle, $haystack ) {
    if ( preg_match_all( "/$needle/im", $haystack ) || strpos( $haystack, $needle ) ) {
  	return TRUE;
    }
    return FALSE;
}

I keep getting this error in my PHP logs, and it comes in a sequence:

[07-Nov-2020 05:34:14 America/Los_Angeles] PHP Warning:  preg_match_all(): Unknown modifier 'G' in /home/baser-b/public_html/include/functions.php on line 791

[07-Nov-2020 05:34:14 America/Los_Angeles] PHP Warning:  preg_match_all(): Unknown modifier 'g' in /home/baser-b/public_html/include/functions.php on line 791

Meaning, it will come with one with the small g, then three with the big G, then one with the small g, then five with the big G, and so on....

My question is, how can I stop getting this error. It won't show me the functions being called to arrive at this answer, as this is likely an error generated by another function calling this one. I was wondering if anyone knew what to change in the search_string function to stop getting this error, why this error is happening, or why the strange repetitive sequence. Is it someone trying to do a hack? The only variable that would be changeable by a visitor would be the $needle variable, so what could they type that has something to do with 'g' to get this?

Anyway, thanks.

Hi there,

First of all, I want to present the diagram that I'm working on.
-----------
Diagram
-----------
step2_a.php --|
step2_b.php --|---> output.php
step2_c.php --|       (Process is included here)
step2_d.php --|


and here are the corresponding codes:

step2_x:
Code: [Select]
. . .
<form action="output.php" method="post" name="a">
req1: <input type="text" name="a_req_1">
req2: <input type="text" name="a_req_2">
. . .
<input type="submit">
</form>
------
. . .
<form action="output.php" method="post" name="b">
req1: <input type="text" name="b_req_1">
req2: <input type="text" name="b_req_2">
. . .
<input type="submit">
</form>
. . .
. . .

output.php:
Code: [Select]
<?php
$form_name = $_POST['a'];
if($form_name = "a") {
//variables for a goes here
        //code goes here
}
elseif($form_name = "b") {
//variables for b goes here
        //code goes here
}
elseif($form_name = "c") {
//cariables for c goes here
        //code goes here
}
elseif($form_name = "d") {
//variables for d goes here
        //code goes here
}
else {
//code goes here
}
?>
Now, here's the problem. output.php always sees the primary condition as true. Even the data came from step2_b, the code does not recognize it. I tried to use "==" instead of "=" but the code sees the arguments as false so it executed the code on "else".

How can I make the code distinguish the source of the data so that it would execute the right set of commands?

Thanks in advance.