phparrayssorting

Explode a string of comma-separated date values then sort them

I have the following string which I am trying to explode and sort from earliest date to latest date:

$dates = '2010-11-05,2010-11-05,2010-11-06,2010-11-06,2010-11-07,2010-11-07,2010-11-08';

I've obviously tried sort(explode(',', $dates)); as well as usort, setting different sort flags, but this just returns true.

Which array sorting function am I looking for?

Solution 
  • <?php

$dates = '2010-11-05,2010-11-05,2010-11-06,2010-11-06,2010-11-07,2010-11-07,2010-11-08';

$array = explode(',', $dates);
sort($array);

print_r($array);

    If you look carefully at the manual page for sort() you'll see that it receives its argument by reference:

    bool sort ( array &$array [, int $sort_flags = SORT_REGULAR ] )

    If you don't feed it with a variable, the results of the sorting will be lost since they can't be stored anywhere.