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Sorting with sort( ) and rsort( )

The simplest array-sorting functions are sort( ) and rsort( ), which rearrange the elements of the subject array in ascending and descending order, respectively:

sort(array subject [, integer sort_flag])
rsort(array subject [, integer sort_flag])

Both functions sort the subject array based on the values of each element. The following example shows the sort( ) function on an array of integers:

$numbers = array(24, 19, 3, 16, 56, 8, 171);
sort($numbers);

foreach($numbers as $n)
  echo $n . " ";

The output of the example prints the elements sorted by value:

3 8 16 19 24 56 171

Another way to examine the contents of the sorted array is to use the print_r( ) function described in Section 2.1.7. The output of the statement print_r($numbers) shows the sorted values with the associated index:

Array ( [0] => 3
        [1] => 8
        [2] => 16
        [3] => 19
        [4] => 24
        [5] => 56
        [6] => 171 )

The following example shows the rsort( ) function on the same array:

$numbers = array(24, 19, 3, 16, 56, 8, 171);
rsort($numbers);
print_r($numbers);

The output of the example shows the elements sorted in reverse order by value:

Array ( [0] => 171
        [1] => 56
        [2] => 24
        [3] => 19
        [4] => 16
        [5] => 8
        [6] => 3 )

By default, PHP sorts strings in alphabetical order and numeric values in numeric order. An optional parameter, sort_flag, can be passed to force the string or numeric sorting behavior. In the following example, the PHP constant SORT_STRING sorts the numbers as if they were strings:

$numbers = array(24, 19, 3, 16, 56, 8, 171);
sort($numbers, SORT_STRING);
print_r($numbers);

The output of the example shows the result:

Array ( [0] => 16
        [1] => 171
        [2] => 19
        [3] => 24
        [4] => 3
        [5] => 56
        [6] => 8 )

Many of the array sorting functions accept a sort_flag parameter. Other sort flags are SORT_REGULAR to compare items in the array normally and SORT_NUMERIC that forces items to be compared numerically.

sort( ) and rsort( ) can be used on associative arrays, but the keys are lost. The resulting array contains only the values in the sorted order. Consider the following example:

$map =
  array("o"=>"kk", "e"=>"zz", "z"=>"hh", "a"=>"rr");

sort($map);
print_r($map);

The print_r( ) output shows the modified array without the key values:

Array ( [0] => hh [1] => kk [2] => rr [3] => zz )

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