usort
(PHP 3>= 3.0.3, PHP 4 , PHP 5)
usort --
Sort an array by values using a user-defined comparison function
Description
bool
usort ( array &array, callback cmp_function )
This function will sort an array by its values using a
user-supplied comparison function. If the array you wish to sort
needs to be sorted by some non-trivial criteria, you should use
this function.
The comparison function must return an integer less than, equal
to, or greater than zero if the first argument is considered to
be respectively less than, equal to, or greater than the
second.
Note:
If two members compare as equal, their order in the sorted array is undefined.
Up to PHP 4.0.6 the user defined functions would keep the original order for
those elements, but with the new sort algorithm introduced with 4.1.0 this
is no longer the case as there is no solution to do so in an efficient way.
Returns TRUE on success or FALSE on failure.
Example 1. usort() example
<?php
function cmp($a, $b)
{
if ($a == $b) {
return 0;
}
return ($a < $b) ? -1 : 1;
}
$a = array(3, 2, 5, 6, 1);
usort($a, "cmp");
while (list($key, $value) = each($a)) {
echo "$key: $value\n";
}
?>
|
The above example will output: |
Note:
Obviously in this trivial case the sort()
function would be more appropriate.
Example 2.
usort() example using multi-dimensional array
<?php
function cmp($a, $b)
{
return strcmp($a["fruit"], $b["fruit"]);
}
$fruits[0]["fruit"] = "lemons";
$fruits[1]["fruit"] = "apples";
$fruits[2]["fruit"] = "grapes";
usort($fruits, "cmp");
while (list($key, $value) = each($fruits)) {
echo "\$fruits[$key]: " . $value["fruit"] . "\n";
}
?>
|
When sorting a multi-dimensional array, $a and
$b contain references to the first index of the array.
The above example will output: $fruits[0]: apples
$fruits[1]: grapes
$fruits[2]: lemons |
|
Example 3.
usort() example using a member function of an object
<?php
class TestObj {
var $name;
function TestObj($name)
{
$this->name = $name;
}
/* This is the static comparing function: */
function cmp_obj($a, $b)
{
$al = strtolower($a->name);
$bl = strtolower($b->name);
if ($al == $bl) {
return 0;
}
return ($al > $bl) ? +1 : -1;
}
}
$a[] = new TestObj("c");
$a[] = new TestObj("b");
$a[] = new TestObj("d");
usort($a, array("TestObj", "cmp_obj"));
foreach ($a as $item) {
echo $item->name . "\n";
}
?>
|
The above example will output: |
See also uasort(),
uksort(), sort(),
asort(),
arsort(),ksort(),
natsort(), and rsort().