Sorting Arrays in PHP

Introduction

Sorting is a process by which we can arrange the elements of a list in a specific order i.e. ascending or descending order. We can say sorting is the process of putting a list or a group of items in a specific order. Sorting may be alphabetical or numerical.

In PHP, sorting is a process of arranging the elements of an array in a specific order i.e. ascending or descending order. Using sorting you can analyze a list in a more effective way. You can sort an array by value, key or randomly. In the most situations we need to sort an array by value.

Some sorting functions are as follows:

sort()
asort()
rsort()
arsort()

1. sort() function

Using the sort() function you can sort easily and simply. The example of the sort() function is as follows:

<html>
<body bgcolor="pink">
<h3>Sort() Function</h3>
<?php
$name=array ("Vineet","Arjun","Manish","Laxman");
echo "Before sorting the values are:".' ';
print_r($name).' '.' ';
sort($name);
echo" ";
echo" ";
echo "After sorting values become:".' ';
print_r($name).' ';
?>
</body>
</html>

Output

In the above example we defined four elements (names) in the array. In this example we used the sort() function. The sort() function arranges the elements of an array in ascending (alphabetically) order. You can see in the following image:

2. asort() function

In the example above you saw that the elements of the array are arranged in ascending (alphabetically) order. The asort() function sorts an array and also maintains the index position. An example of the asort() function is as follows:

<html>
<body bgcolor="pink">
<h3>Sort() Function</h3>
<?php
$name=array ("Vineet","Arjun","Manish","Laxman");
echo "Before sorting the values are:".' ';
print_r($name).' '.' ';
asort($name);
echo" ";
echo" ";
echo "After sorting values become:".' ';
print_r($name).' ';
?>
</body>
</html>

Output

In this output you will see the array sorted by their index position.

3. rsort() function

The rsort() function is used to sort an array in descending (alphabetic) order. An example of the rsort() function is as follows:

<html>
<body bgcolor="pink">
<h3>Sort() Function</h3>
<?php
$name=array ("Vineet","Arjun","Manish","Laxman");
echo "Before sorting the values are:".' ';
print_r($name).' '.' ';
rsort($name);
echo" ";
echo" ";
echo "After sorting values become:".' ';
print_r($name).' ';
?>
</body>
</html>

Output

In this output you will see the array sorted in a descending (alphabetically) order.

4. arsort() function

The arsort() function is a combination of asort() + rsort(). The arsort() function will sort an array in reverse order and maintain index position. The example of the arsort() function is as follows:

<html>
<body bgcolor="pink">
<h3>Sort() Function</h3>
<?php
$name=array ("Vineet","Arjun","Manish","Laxman");
echo "Before sorting the values are:".' ';
print_r($name).' '.' ';
arsort($name);
echo" ";
echo" ";
echo "After sorting values become:".' ';
print_r($name).' ';
?>
</body>
</html>

Output

Conclusion

In this article you saw how to sort an array in PHP. Using this article one can easily understand sorting an arrays in PHP.

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