What potential pitfalls should be considered when implementing a ranking system in PHP?

One potential pitfall when implementing a ranking system in PHP is the risk of inconsistent or incorrect rankings if the system is not properly designed to handle ties. To address this issue, you can use a stable sorting algorithm like mergesort to ensure that players with the same score are ranked consistently. 

// Sample code snippet using mergesort to handle ties in a ranking system

function mergeSort(&$array) {
    if(count($array) == 1) return $array;
    
    $mid = count($array) / 2;
    $left = array_slice($array, 0, $mid);
    $right = array_slice($array, $mid);
    
    $left = mergeSort($left);
    $right = mergeSort($right);
    
    return merge($left, $right);
}

function merge($left, $right) {
    $result = [];
    
    while(count($left) > 0 && count($right) > 0) {
        if($left[0]['score'] >= $right[0]['score']) {
            $result[] = array_shift($left);
        } else {
            $result[] = array_shift($right);
        }
    }
    
    while(count($left) > 0) {
        $result[] = array_shift($left);
    }
    
    while(count($right) > 0) {
        $result[] = array_shift($right);
    }
    
    return $result;
}

// Usage example
$players = [
    ['name' => 'Player 1', 'score' => 100],
    ['name' => 'Player 2', 'score' => 90],
    ['name' => 'Player 3', 'score' => 100],
    ['name' => 'Player 4', 'score' => 80]
];

$sortedPlayers = mergeSort($players);

foreach($sortedPlayers as $index => $player) {
    echo ($index + 1) . '. ' . $player['name'] . ' - ' . $player['score'] . PHP_EOL;
}

Keywords

SQL injection XSS attacks data validation algorithm efficiency security vulnerabilities

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