Sort Function

FlipinMonkeyPie

I am writing a php website and in one of the script, i want to know how to make the contents of a dir be sorted by a-z here is the while statement..

while(is_dir($dir_path."$dir_number")){

$filetocheck = $dir_path. "$dir_number\\";
$file_number = "1";
$numlinks = "0";

while(file_exists($filetocheck."$file_number.php")){

	$numlinks = $numlinks+1;
	$file_number = $file_number+1;
}

$filetoread = $dir_path. "$dir_number\\info.php";
include($filetoread);

$dirlisting .= "<li><a href=\"$PHP_SELF?a=dir&dir=1\" class=\"top_menu_2\">$dir_name</a> ($numlinks)</li>";

$dir_number = $dir_number+1;

}

i want to know how to make the

$dirlisting

alphabatized, what do i need to change, how can i make it an array and still have all the info in it..

if you'll notice there is a file in each folder called info.php that has the name of the dir in it, every dir is name 1, 2, 3, etc. then it opens the file and prints the name of the dir to show up how i want it.

thanks,
stephen

Weedpacket

Originally posted by FlipinMonkeyPie

i want to know how to make the $dirlisting alphabatized, what do i need to change, how can i make it an array and still have all the info in it..

What's probably easiest is to make it an array with all the info in it, then alphabetise it.

Change

 $dirlisting .= "<li><a href="$PHP_SELF?a=dir&dir=1\" class=\"top_menu_2\">$dir_name</a> ($numlinks)</li>";

 $dirlisting[] = "<li><a href=\"$PHP_SELF?a=dir&dir=1\" class=\"top_menu_2\">$dir_name</a> ($numlinks)</li>";

And after the loop:

sort($dirlisting); // To sort
$dirlisting=join('',$dirlisting); // To turn it into a single string.

That will sort the way you want, but more through luck than anything else.

Better would be

$dir['dir_name']=$dir_name;
$dir['numlinks']=$numlinks;
$dirlisting[]=$dir;

in the loop. Then afterwards:

} // This is the end of the while loop.

function compare_dirname($a,$b)
{   return strcmp($a['dir_name'], $b['dir_name']); // This is the way we want them sorted.
}
usort($dirlisting, 'compare_dirname'); // So sort them that way.

foreach($dirlisting as $k=>$dir)
{ $dirlisting[$k] = "<li>...$dir[dir_name]...$dir[numlinks]...</li>"; // Apply the formatting
}

$dirlisting=join('', $dirlisting);

That's off the top of my head. The fact I keep reusing $dirlising implies a guess that you'd have no further use for the contents of the array after this string has been bult up.

But the general principle is probably more important than the specific implementation. Structure your data right in the first place, and the code will follow. Good programming practice, that.

FlipinMonkeyPie

Thank you so much, ive talked to so many people and couldnt get it to work, this is my final chunk of code.

$dirlisting[] = "<li><a href=\"$PHP_SELF?a=dir&dir=1\" class=\"top_menu_2\">$dir_name</a> ($numlinks)</li>";
sort($dirlisting);
$dirlisting=join('',$dirlisting);

i was trying to do this and couldnt get it to work

$dirlist = array(
"dir_name" => $dir_name,
"numlinks" => $numlinks
)

sort($dirlist);

foreach($dirlist as $item){

echo "<li><a href=\"$PHP_SELF?a=dir&dir=1\" class=\"top_menu_2\">$dir_name</a> ($numlinks)</li>";

}

all that would show up was

other(0)
other(0)

well, i got it working, thanks to you, i cant thank you enough...

Weedpacket

Yes, that's the better approach. The reason why

sort($dirlist);

wasn't working was the fact that PHP had no idea how to sort array('dirname=>$this, 'numlinks'=>$that) entries; hence my wee comparison function to describe the rule it was to follow.

When it comes to nontrivial sorting tasks, the usort() function loves you and wants to be your friend 😃

FlipinMonkeyPie

Originally posted by Weedpacket
When it comes to nontrivial sorting tasks, the usort() function loves you and wants to be your friend 😃

ill remember that..