Basic Program to output n digits from a given string

string-to-numeric-digits.php

<?php 

function encode($string, $outputLength=6) {
   // echo '<br>'.$string;
	$string	=	md5($string);
	//echo '<br>'.$string;
	
	$ans 	= array();
    $string = str_split($string);

    for ($i = 0; $i < count($string); $i++) {
		if((int)($string[$i])){
			$ans[] = 	$string[$i];
		}
    }
	$ans	=	array_unique($ans);
	echo '<pre>';print_r($ans); 
	$outputString	=	implode('', $ans);
	
	if(strlen($outputString) >= $outputLength){
		$outputString	=	substr($outputString,0,$outputLength);
	}else{
		$howMuchLess	=	$outputLength - strlen($outputString);
		//$outputString	=	$outputString.str_repeat("0", $howMuchLess);
		$outputString	=	$outputString.implode('', array_slice($ans, 0, $howMuchLess));
	}
	return $outputString;
}




$sku		=	'sr0112s';
$original	=	strtolower($sku);


$encoded = encode($original);
echo $encoded . "\n";