PHP Sort an array by numerical name

Question

Creating a site using Codeigniter. I have used codeigniters directory helper to get the filenames of all files in a directory:

$this->load->helper('directory'); $files = directory_map('directory_name/', 1);

This all works as expected and I get a list of the files in the directory - print_r($files) proves this.

However, the file names all start with numerical values:

 1_firstfile.doc  
  2_nextfile.doc  
  3_another.exe  
  ...   ...  
  11_thisfile.txt  
  12_filename.pdf

My problem is that the files are returned in a different order that I would like. I wish them to be returned in the order above, but instead they are returned like this:

 1_firstfile.doc    
  11_thisfile.txt  
  12_filename.pdf  
  2_nextfile.doc   
  3_another.exe

Obviously, they are being returned in alphabetical order, but I need them returned in numerical order.

I have tried $files = sort($files,1) but that seems to just empty the array. So, apart from changing the filename, how can I get the array to arrange them in the order I require?

line 1 = sort($files); line 2 print_r($files); You do not need to assign a sort to a var — Marco Mura
– Marco Mura, Commented Dec 23, 2014 at 9:27

Mark Baker · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-23 09:27:20Z

3

All sort() functions are "pass by reference", so it actually modifies the argument directly, returning a success or failure status, so

$files = sort($files)

sorts $files, but then assigns the success status (a Boolean true/false) to $files

Simply do

sort($files)

Note that to sort cleanly by the numeric part of the filename, you should be using sort() with the SORT_NATURAL flag, or natsort()

answered Dec 23, 2014 at 9:27

Mark Baker

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