Sorting An Array

rivka

I'm having some problems 🙁 Here's my snippet of code:

$str = "12,2,13,7,5,10";
$array = explode(',', $str);
$counts = array_count_values($array);

while (list ($key, $val) = each ($counts))
{
echo "$key = $val<br>";
}

I need for the array in the while loop to be in sorted order by the $val. Trying to sort() on $array or $counts gives me all kinds of weird errors about "Variable passed to each() is not an array or object " and whatnot. What am I doing wrong?? How can I make this happen?

Mordecai

All the keys are probably strings, and that might be why... But, try something like this:
sort($array,SORT_NUMERIC);

rivka

That did it! Thank you 🙂

Mordecai

Cool. Can you click the mark thread resolved button? It might help others find this post more easily, if this question should ever arise again.

rivka

Wait, I take it back. Didn't work. Don't I need to state:

$array = sort($array,SORT_NUMERIC);

Doing that gives me the same errors as before.

Mordecai

No, sort actually changes the array around. The function's type is "void," which means you can't change anything to it.

Consult the manual(US4 mirror) for more info.

rivka

I see where the problem is: your suggestion is sorting on the $key (or the string values) beforehand. I need to sort by the $val values (i.e. the counts) after array_count_values() is done.

Let me see if I can explain this better: I'm getting the counts of several numbers in a string. So for example:

12 = 3 appearances in the string
5 = 7 appearances in the string
2 = 2 appearances in the string

I need to be able to sort by the appearances. Is there any way to pull this off?

Weedpacket

What happens if you use foreach($counts as $key=>$value) instead of the while()?

Oh, and wouldn't you be wanting to sort($counts)?