mixed string sort issue

[kelsofield]

Evening all!

I have an issue where I have a table colum that has various filenames.
What I need to do is sort them in a particuar way, I will try and give you an example..

The array called containes 2 types of filenames..

1. AA00068945 (can be any alpha prefix)
2. 83DS9263 (or any mix of characters.

When a user searches, they could get hundreds of results but mixed filenames.

The have to be sorted highest number first (arsort deliveres that one) BUT any starting AA have to come before any that dont have an alpha prefix.

Just using arsort, I typically get this sort of result..

-Keyword Elephant - Results ----------------------------

[0] [ 83DS9263 ]
[1] [ 83DS9262 ]
[2] [ 83DS9255 ]
[3] [ AA003256 ]
[4] [ AA003255 ]
[5] [ BB003208 ]

---

This is all and well, as it is using ersort, the results are fine.. BUT I need it to be..

-Keyword Elephant - Results ----------------------------

[0] [ AA003256 ]
[1] [ AA003255 ]
[2] [ BB003208 ]
[3] [ 83DS9263 ]
[4] [ 83DS9262 ]
[5] [ 83DS9255 ]

---

I hope this makes sense to someone..

Any thoughts appreciated

KF

[Derokorian]

You could write your own function to sort, and call it using usort()

Simple example:

function compare($a,$b) {
   if( $a == $b ) return 0;
   return ( $a > $b ) ? 1 : -1;
}
$arr = array(1,12,'A12','B37');
shuffle($arr);
var_dump($arr);
$arr = usort($arr,'compare');
var_dump($arr);

You would of source need to write some more logic within the compare function to get what you want, just giving you an idea how it you could accomplish this task.