natsort
(PHP 4, PHP 5)
natsort — Sort an array using a "natural order" algorithm
Description
bool natsort
( array &$array
)
This function implements a sort algorithm that orders alphanumeric strings in the way a human being would while maintaining key/value associations. This is described as a "natural ordering". An example of the difference between this algorithm and the regular computer string sorting algorithms (used in sort()) can be seen below:
Returns TRUE on success or FALSE on failure.
Example#1 natsort() example
<?php
$array1 = $array2 = array("img12.png", "img10.png", "img2.png", "img1.png");
sort($array1);
echo "Standard sorting\n";
print_r($array1);
natsort($array2);
echo "\nNatural order sorting\n";
print_r($array2);
?>
The above example will output:
Standard sorting Array ( [0] => img1.png [1] => img10.png [2] => img12.png [3] => img2.png ) Natural order sorting Array ( [3] => img1.png [2] => img2.png [1] => img10.png [0] => img12.png )
For more information see: Martin Pool's » Natural Order String Comparison page.
See also natcasesort(), strnatcmp(), and strnatcasecmp().