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 in the example below.
The input array.
Returns TRUE
on success or FALSE
on failure.
Zero padded numeric strings (e.g., '00005') now essentially ignore the 0 padding.
<?php $array1 = $array2 = array("img12.png", "img10.png", "img2.png", "img1.png"); asort($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 ( [3] => img1.png [1] => img10.png [0] => img12.png [2] => 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.
<?php echo "Negative numbers\n"; $negative = array('-5','3','-2','0','-1000','9','1'); print_r($negative); natsort($negative); print_r($negative); echo "Zero padding\n"; $zeros = array('09', '8', '10', '009', '011', '0'); print_r($zeros); natsort($zeros); print_r($zeros); ?>
The above example will output:
Negative numbers Array ( [0] => -5 [1] => 3 [2] => -2 [3] => 0 [4] => -1000 [5] => 9 [6] => 1 ) Array ( [2] => -2 [0] => -5 [4] => -1000 [3] => 0 [6] => 1 [1] => 3 [5] => 9 ) Zero padding Array ( [0] => 09 [1] => 8 [2] => 10 [3] => 009 [4] => 011 [5] => 0 ) Array ( [5] => 0 [1] => 8 [3] => 009 [0] => 09 [2] => 10 [4] => 011 )
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