Customized Array Sorting

sysera

Hello all,
I've done some reading on this topic and it seems there is a way to do what I want, but I'm having a difficult time wrapping my head around how I can make it work.

I have an array which is made out of a list of files in a directory. I'd like to be able to customize the sorting of the array to match a predefined list, or variable somehow.

For instance, my files names are based system names, here's an example(not the actual names):

Production1
Production2
Development1
Development2
QA1
QA2

Now, I always know what these filenames are in the array, they never change, dissappear and reappear etc. I'd like to be able to specify the order in which they are printed.

For example:
$1="Production1";
$2="Production2";
$3="QA1";
$4="QA2";
$5="Development1";
$6="Development2";

And then print them out of the array, in this specific order. Can anyone give me an example of how I could go about accomplishing this?

Any feedback is always appreciated. Thanks. 🙂

-Sys

laserlight

Now, I always know what these filenames are in the array, they never change, dissappear and reappear etc.

If that is the case, then it might be best to do this by hand, i.e. embed the order into the script, rather than sort dynamically each time the script is run.

If you still wish to sort dynamically, then [man]usort/man might be used, but it depends on your exact requirements.

sysera

laserlight wrote:
If that is the case, then it might be best to do this by hand, i.e. embed the order into the script, rather than sort dynamically each time the script is run.

This is actually a pretty good suggestion for this scenerio. I suppose my train of thought when I'm coding something is always to keep it as module and portable as possible for the future and not rely on static values, but in this case it should suit me just fine really.

I will however make the array definition and include, just because I can't help but seperate it from the rest of the script somehow. Haha.

Thanks for the reality check. 😉

-Sys