PHP - How To Generate A Product Serial Number?

So I have this function which generates a random serial # that is 12 characters long.  However I want to insert a dash  every four characters like so: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
Any suggestions?

Code: [Select]
<?php
$serial1 = get_serial_num(12);

//Serial # function
function get_serial_num($number_cnt){
 $ret_arr = array();
 $serial = "";
 $ser_num = array("1","2","3","4","5","6","7","8","9","0","A","B","C","D","E","F","G","H","I","J","K","L","M","N","O","P","Q","R","S","T","U","V","W","X","Y","Z");
 for($i = 0; $i < $number_cnt; $i++){
   $rand = rand(0,count($ser_num)-1);
   $val = wordwrap($ser_num[$rand],1,"\n", true);
   $serial .= $val;
   
 }
 return $serial;
}
echo ''.$serial1.'';
?>
Warning: I am a bit noobish.

I made a function which displays the left and right children of the root. However i need to add serial numbers to them. Due to Recursive functions i'm not quite able to to do so . Can someone please help me?
Code: [Select]
function side_display($root)
  {
      $sql = "SELECT lchild,rchild FROM tree WHERE parent='".$root."'";
      $sqlexec = mysql_query($sql);
      $array = mysql_fetch_array($sqlexec);
      if(!empty($array['lchild']) && $array['lchild'] != '0')
      {
          echo "<tr>";

          echo "<td>".($array['lchild'])."</td>";
          $get = "SELECT * FROM member WHERE member_id='".$array['lchild']."'";
          $execget = mysql_query($get);
          $getarray = mysql_fetch_array($execget);
          echo "<td>".$getarray['fname']." ".$getarray['lname']."</td>";
          echo "<td>".$getarray['id_sponsor']."</td>" ;
          echo "<td>Left</td>";
          echo "<td>".$getarray['doj']."</td>" ;
          echo "</tr>";
          side_display($array['lchild']);
      }
      if(!empty($array['rchild']) && $array['rchild'] != '0')
      {
         echo "<tr>";

          echo "<td>".($array['rchild'])."</td>";
          $get = "SELECT * FROM member WHERE member_id='".$array['rchild']."'";
          $execget = mysql_query($get);
          $getarray = mysql_fetch_array($execget);
          echo "<td>".$getarray['fname']." ".$getarray['lname']."</td>";
          echo "<td>".$getarray['id_sponsor']."</td>" ;
          echo "<td>Right</td>";
          echo "<td>".$getarray['doj']."</td>" ;
          echo "</tr>";
         
          side_display($array['rchild']);
      }
   
  }

Please i'm working on a project and i need to write a code that generates a unique random serial number.How can i go about it?

My table looks like this..

`guns_id` int(255) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  `guns_name` varchar(255) collate latin1_general_ci NOT NULL,
  `guns_price` int(255) NOT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY  (`guns_id`)

I want to add a product key that is unique through out the whole database as I have other products other than guns aswell.

Hi,

I have a trouble figuring out how to properly convert a list of product data from XML into CSV format.

My source is a XML file containing a list of products with attributes like color, size, material etc. with the following structu
Code: [Select]
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<store>
        <products>
            <product>
                <name>T-Shirt</name>
                <price>19.00</price>
                <attributes>
                    <attribute>
                        <name>Color</name>
                        <options>
                            <option>
                                <name>White</name>
                                <price>0.00</price>
                            </option>
                            <option>
                                <name>Black</name>
                                <price>0.00</price>
                            </option>
                            <option>
                                <name>Blue</name>
                                <price>0.00</price>
                            </option>
                        </options>
                    </attribute>
                    <attribute>
                        <name>Size</name>
                        <options>
                            <option>
                                <name>XS</name>
                                <price>-5.00</price>
                            </option>
                            <option>
                                <name>S</name>
                                <price>-5.00</price>
                            </option>
                            <option>
                                <name>M</name>
                                <price>0.00</price>
                            </option>
                            <option>
                                <name>L</name>
                                <price>0.00</price>
                            </option>
                            <option>
                                <name>XL</name>
                                <price>5.00</price>
                            </option>
                        </options>
                    </attribute>
                </attributes>
            </product>
            <product>
                <name>Sweatshirt</name>
                <price>49.00</price>
                <attributes>
                    <attribute>
                        <name>Color</name>
                        <options>
                            <option>
                                <name>White</name>
                                <price>0.00</price>
                            </option>
                            <option>
                                <name>Black</name>
                                <price>0.00</price>
                            </option>
                        </options>
                    </attribute>
                    <attribute>
                        <name>Size</name>
                        <options>
                            <option>
                                <name>XS</name>
                                <price>-10.00</price>
                            </option>
                            <option>
                                <name>M</name>
                                <price>0.00</price>
                            </option>
                            <option>
                                <name>XL</name>
                                <price>10.00</price>
                            </option>
                        </options>
                    </attribute>
                    <attribute>
                        <name>Material</name>
                        <options>
                            <option>
                                <name>Cotton</name>
                                <price>10.00</price>
                            </option>
                            <option>
                                <name>Polyester</name>
                                <price>0.00</price>
                            </option>
                        </options>
                    </attribute>
                </attributes>
            </product>
            <product>
                <name>Earrings</name>
                <price>29.00</price>
            </product>
        </products>
    </store>

Each product has a number of elements like name, price etc. but also a random number of attributes (like color, size, material etc.) that also have a random number of options.
Each option can affect the price of the product, so ordering a XS sized t-shirt can be cheaper than ordering a XL sized t-shirt.

I would like to end up with a CSV representing one attribute combination on each line.

In my example that would result in 3 colors x 5 sizes = 15 lines for the T-Shirt , 2 colors x 3 sizes x 2 materials = 12 lines for the Sweatshirt and 1 line for the Earrings without any attributes:
Code: [Select]
        name,price,color,size,material
T-Shirt,14.00,White,XS,
T-Shirt,14.00,Black,XS,
T-Shirt,14.00,Blue,XS,
T-Shirt,14.00,White,S,
T-Shirt,14.00,Black,S,
T-Shirt,14.00,Blue,S,
T-Shirt,19.00,White,M,
T-Shirt,19.00,Black,M,
T-Shirt,19.00,Blue,M,
T-Shirt,19.00,White,L,
T-Shirt,19.00,Black,L,
T-Shirt,19.00,Blue,L,
T-Shirt,24.00,White,XL,
T-Shirt,24.00,Black,XL,
T-Shirt,24.00,Blue,XL,
    Sweatshirt,49.00,White,XS,Cotton
Sweatshirt,49.00,Black,XS,Cotton
Sweatshirt,59.00,White,M,Cotton
Sweatshirt,69.00,Black,M,Cotton
Sweatshirt,69.00,White,XL,Cotton
Sweatshirt,69.00,Black,XL,Cotton
Sweatshirt,39.00,White,XS,Polyester
Sweatshirt,39.00,Black,XS,Polyester
Sweatshirt,49.00,White,M,Polyester
Sweatshirt,49.00,Black,M,Polyester
Sweatshirt,59.00,White,XL,Polyester
Sweatshirt,59.00,Black,XL,Polyester
Earrings,29.00,,,
   
I already managed to generate the CSV Output for simple products like the Earrings and products with just one attribute, but am struggling to come up with a way to generate all possible product attribute combinations for products with more than one attribute.

My miserable attempts at this so far have produced following code:

Code: [Select]
    <?php
    mb_internal_encoding("UTF-8");
    header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');

    $source = "example.xml";
    $handle = fopen($source, "r");
    $fp = fopen('export.csv', 'w');
    $xml = simplexml_load_file($source);

    // Generate list of attributes (for csv header etc.)
    $header_attributes = array();
    foreach ($xml->products->product as $product) {
        if(isset($product->attributes)) {
            foreach($product->attributes->attribute as $attribute) {
                array_push($header_attributes, $attribute->name);
            }
        }
    }
    $header_attributes = array_unique($header_attributes);

    $csvheader = array(
        'name','price' // these exist for all products, could also include weight, image, description, special price etc...
    );

    $static_csvheadercount = count($csvheader);

    foreach($header_attributes as $attribute) {
        array_push($csvheader, $attribute); // add variable number of attribute fields to csv header
    }

    fputcsv($fp, $csvheader);

    foreach ($xml->products->product as $product) {  // loop through each product
        if(isset($product->attributes)) $simple = 0;
        else $simple = 1;
        if($simple == 1) { // if product is a simple product with no attributes
            $output=array();
            array_push($output,(string)$product->name);
            array_push($output,(string)$product->price);
            for($i = $static_csvheadercount + $attribute_position; $i < count($csvheader); $i++) {
                        array_push($output, '');
            }
            fputcsv($fp, $output);
        }
        else { // is a configurable product with attributes
            $json = json_encode($product->attributes);
            $attributes = json_decode($json, TRUE);
            $attributes_number = count($product->attributes->attribute);
            if($attributes_number > 1) { // if product has more than 1 attributes so we have to generate each attribute combination
                //
                // I'm trying to figure out what should happen here
                //
            }
            else { // if product has only one attribute
                $attributename =  (string)$product->attributes->attribute->name;
                $attribute_position = array_search($attributename, $header_attributes);
                $options_number = count($product->attributes->options->option);
                $pos = 1;
                foreach($attributes['attribute']['options']['option'] as $option) { 
                    $output=array();
                    array_push($output,(string)$product->name);
                    array_push($output,(string)$product->price);
                    for($i = $static_csvheadercount - 1; $i < ($static_csvheadercount + $attribute_position); $i++) {
                        array_push($output, '');
                    }

                    $output[$static_csvheadercount + $attribute_position] = $option['name'];
                    for($i = $static_csvheadercount + $attribute_position; $i < count($csvheader) - 1 ; $i++) {
                        array_push($output, '');
                    }
                    fputcsv($fp, $output);
                    $pos++;
                }
                $output=array();
                array_push($output,(string)$product->name);
                array_push($output,(string)$product->price);
                for($i = $static_csvheadercount; $i < count($csvheader); $i++) {
                    array_push($output, '');
                }
                fputcsv($fp, $output);
            }
        }
    }

    ?>
      
I've been stuck at this problem for hours unable to figure out a solution.

Can someone give a few tips or pointer how to achieve the output for products with multiple attributes?