Another way to calculate tag cloud sizes

Introduction

Some time ago I wanted to implement a tag cloud in my current project i searched the web for a better calculation for tag sizes and i found this one. It is a bit addopted to my case.

The code

function calculateTagCloud($tags) { $max_size = 250; // max font size in % $min_size = 100; // min font size in % $min_qty = 0; $max_qty = 0; if( count($tags) ) { for($i=0; $i<count($tags); $i++) { if( $tags[$i]['counter']>$max_qty ) $max_qty = $tags[$i]['counter']; } $min_qty = $max_qty; for($i=0; $i<count($tags); $i++) { if( $tags[$i]['counter']<$min_qty ) $min_qty = $tags[$i]['counter']; } $spread = $max_qty - $min_qty; if (0 == $spread) { // we don't want to divide by zero $spread = 1; } // determine the font-size increment // this is the increase per tag quantity (times used) $step = ($max_size - $min_size)/($spread); for($i=0; $i<count($tags); $i++) { $value = $tags[$i]['counter']; // calculate CSS font-size // find the $value in excess of $min_qty // multiply by the font-size increment ($size) // and add the $min_size set above $size = $min_size + (($value - $min_qty) * $step); // uncomment if you want sizes in whole %: $size = ceil($size); $tags[$i]['size']= $size; } } return $tags; }

The $tags array holds any info needed for each tag and a field named 'counter' which is the number of occurences of the tag. That one is the mandatory and actualy used by this code.  The function adds one more named 'size' which is the size in percentage. Yes the css uses % in font size.

The comments in the code makes it clear, just simple calculations after all.

Conclusion

Nice calculation. Just wanted to share it. I will try to locate the original source again.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Intelliproject Open License (IPOL)

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