Sorting name-dated directories

tisource

Hi,

I've got this script that scans a directory for folders that are exactly 6 characters, where the first two digits are the month, second two digits are the day, and the last two digits are the year.

This script is supposed to sort (descending) the listing by date and return a string, such as "122701" representing the newest dated directory (each date is a publication for our online newspaper).

==========File Structure==========
- archive
- 112701
- HTML Files
- 122001
- HTML Files
- 122501
- HTML Files
- 122701
- HTML Files
- 010102
- HTML Files

The script worked okay, until the "010102" directory was introduced. I was using an 'rsort' function to sort a simple array of directory entries. Now the new directory, "010102" is listed at the bottom instead of the top.

I thought about parsing each entry and creating a multidimensional associative array, where the array is divided by year, month and date (the "01" key would contain an associative array with 2001 entries) like the following:

01 (Year 2001)
-11 (Month of November)
("27")
-12 (Month of December)
("20, 25, 27" )
02 (Year 2002)
-01 (Month of January)
("01, "03")

or in other words, like this:

$listing = array("01" => array ("12" => array ("25", "27"), "11" => array("27")), "02" => array ("01" => array ("01"));

I don't know how to reference assoc. arrays very well or how to sort them.

I'm at my wit's end here. I am by no means a php expert, and still learning the language. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jason

Anon

This is why you often see dates expressed as YYMMDD, not MMDDYY. Simple sorting works.

You could use a regular expression to rewrite the strings, sort the rewritten strings, then use another regular expression to restore them. There might be a simpler way, but I haven't given it that much thought.

Anon

Ah-ha! The Y2K bug strikes again!

tisource

I didn't think about renaming the directories.

Unfortunately, each dated directory contains HTML files as well as its own photos directory. Inside each HTML file is more than one path to one of these photos. Renaming the directories would be a big, extensive job. Especially because we've got about 3 years worth of bi-weekly publications for one paper and over a year of weekly publications for the other (but that's not what you meant).

I did set the array to use natsort, and it seemed to work. I think it's a fluke. The only reason it's probably working is because I only have November & December currently up from last year. '01' comes before '11' or '12'.

I don't want any more 'surprizes'. Perhaps I'll follow your advice and rearrange the digits in an array (YYMMDD), then after I sort it, I can revert the digits to their original form for display. I'm lucky I'm working with a standard, fixed set of digits.

At first, I thought about creating an associative array. The first set of keys would be the year (YY). Then each year's value (YY => array) would be another associative array containing the months (MM). Each month would contain a simple array of the days (DD). Then I thought I could sort the days first, then the months, then the years. I could then append them all together in a loop. "YY"."MM"."DD". I have no idea how to do that, and it seems my attempt to keep things as simple as possible was futile. Forget this idea -- I'm goin' with your's (so simple, why didn't I think of that!).

Frustration sets in first, then desperation. I've gotta fix this thing asap! Thank you for your response! You've been very helpful.

Jason

tisource

You're not kidding! I never thought I was going to run into this problem. But I think Steve's solution will do the trick.

Hopefully, it'll smask Y2K -- at least at our site.

tisource

You're not kidding! I never thought I was going to run into this problem. But I think Steve's solution will do the trick.

Hopefully, it'll smask Y2K -- at least at our site.