Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Web Development Practices In Relation To Odd Number Functions

By Chris Channing

The popular web programming platform PHP is known for its functionality for web designers and developers alike. This holds true in providing support for odd and even number functions, which are surprisingly not always in use by web developers today. Indeed, there is much to learn in how to use such functions.

It may seem somewhat far fetched, but PHP itself doesn't have a function that can determine if a number is odd or if it is even. This has led PHP developers to get creative in making their own functions that accomplish the job regardless. Whether using a simple IF statement, function, or even usign bitwise operators, there are plenty of options to undertake in order to determine if a number is odd or not.

Even if readers aren't web developers, they have likely seen the effects an odd number function has had on PHP web development in general. Most websites that have to organize a lot of data will alternate table row styles to make data much easier to read. This can also be seen in commenting systems, lyrics websites, and forum systems. It's just another last-touch that really puts a spin on a finished application.

PHP and databases go hand in hand. Databases are used to store all types of information, both numbers and letters alike. But since databases can grow large in size, and literally have hundreds of columns and thousands of rows, some way to sort the information is necessary. Depending on the situation, an odd or even function in PHP will help out quite a bit.

Arrays are great at storing information outside of a database- great for getting access to information in the current session without much hassle or without creating a bottleneck at the database. One interesting concept is to create multi-dimensional arrays out of a single array, by sorting information based on even and odd numbers.

Last but not least, we can couple a function to find even and odd numbers with the built-in date functions to achieve different results. We could, for instance, use odd and even numbers to put into algorithms to do all types of things- such as limiting the amount of login attempts a user can make in a given time period or even allowing doing something as simple as displaying data only at certain times. Whatever the case, the possibilities are endless when it comes to being creative in odd and even numbers.

Final Thoughts

All web designers should take note on the different ways odd and even number functions can make their life easier. From web design to arrays and complex algorithms, such functions have a very real place in every web developer's cookbook of necessary functions.

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