README

The definitive function for sorting arrays in PHP.

Function signatures

array_sort(array $array): array
array_sort(array $array, array $options = []): array
array_sort(array $array, int $flags = SORT_LOCALE_STRING): array
array_sort(array $array, int $flags = SORT_LOCALE_STRING, array $options = []): array
array_sort(array $array, int $flags = SORT_LOCALE_STRING, callable $callback = null, array $options = []): array
array_sort(array $array, callback $callback = null, array $options = []): array

Parameters

array

The input array.

flags

The parameter flags may be used to modify the sorting behavior using these values:

• SORT_REGULAR - compare items normally; the details are described in the comparison operators section
• SORT_NUMERIC - compare items numerically
• SORT_STRING - compare items as strings
• SORT_LOCALE_STRING - compare items as strings, based on the current locale. It uses the locale, which can be changed using setlocale()
• SORT_NATURAL - compare items as strings using "natural ordering" like natsort()
• SORT_FLAG_CASE - can be combined (bitwise OR) with SORT_STRING or SORT_NATURAL to sort strings case-insensitively

callback

The parameter callback is a function to convert an array item to its string or numeric form. If it is set to NULL the default function is used:

$callback = function($item){ return (string)$item; };

options

The default options are:

Array(
  "sort_keys" => false,
  "reverse" => false,
  "preserve_keys" => false,
)

Return value

The function array_sort returns the sorted array.

Usage

$fruits = ["d" => "lemon", "a" => "orange", "b" => "banana", "c" => "apple"];

array_sort($fruits); // ["apple", "banana", "lemon", "orange"]
array_sort($fruits,["reverse" => true]); // ["orange", "lemon", "banana", "apple"]

array_sort($fruits,["preserve_keys" => true]); // ["c" => "apple", "b" => "banana", "d" => "lemon", "a" => "orange"]
array_sort($fruits,["preserve_keys" => true, "reverse" => true]); // ["a" => "orange", "d" => "lemon", "b" => "banana", "c" => "apple"]

// === SORTING KEYS ===

array_sort($fruits,["sort_keys" => true]); // ["a" => "orange", "b" => "banana", "c" => "apple", "d" => "lemon"]
array_sort($fruits,["sort_keys" => true, "reverse" => true]); // ["d" => "lemon", "c" => "apple", "b" => "banana", "a" => "orange"]

// === NUMERIC SORTING ===

$numbers = ["d" => 200, "a" => 100, "b" => 20, "c" => 10];

// not yet :)
array_sort($numbers); // [10, 100, 20, 200];

array_sort($numbers,SORT_NUMERIC); // [10, 20, 100, 200]
array_sort($numbers,SORT_NUMERIC,["reverse" => true]); // [200, 100, 20, 10]

array_sort($numbers,SORT_NUMERIC,["preserve_keys" => true]); // ["c" => 10, "b" => 20, "a" => 100, "d" => 200]

// === SORTING OF STRUCTURES ===

$books = [
  [
    "author" => "Verne, Jules",
    "title" => "Around the World in Eighty Days",
  ],
  [
    "author" => "Tolstoy, Leo",
    "title" => "War and Peace",
  ],
  [
    "author" => "King, Stephen",
    "title" => "The X-Files",
  ],
  [
    "author" => "Toole, John Kennedy",
    "title" => "A Confederacy of Dunces",
  ],
];

// sorting by the author
array_sort($books, function($book){ return $book["author"]; });
// [
//   [
//     "author" => "King, Stephen",
//     "title" => "The X-Files",
//   ],
//   [
//     "author" => "Tolstoy, Leo",
//     "title" => "War and Peace",
//   ],
//   [
//     "author" => "Toole, John Kennedy",
//     "title" => "A Confederacy of Dunces",
//   ],
//   [
//     "author" => "Verne, Jules",
//     "title" => "Around the World in Eighty Days",
//   ],
// ]

// sorting by the title without article
array_sort($books, function($book){ return preg_replace("/^(an?|the) /i","",$book["title"]); });
// [
//   [
//     "author" => "Verne, Jules",
//     "title" => "Around the World in Eighty Days",
//   ],
//   [
//     "author" => "Toole, John Kennedy",
//     "title" => "A Confederacy of Dunces",
//   ],
//   [
//     "author" => "Tolstoy, Leo",
//     "title" => "War and Peace",
//   ],
//   [
//     "author" => "King, Stephen",
//     "title" => "The X-Files",
//   ],
// ]

Installation

Just use the Composer:

composer require yarri/array-sort

License

ArraySort is free software distributed under the terms of the MIT license