Training, Open Source Programming Languages

This is page http://www.wellho.net/mouth/54_PHP-a ... rting.html

Our email: info@wellho.net • Phone: 01144 1225 708225

 
For 2023 (and 2024 ...) - we are now fully retired from IT training.
We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.

Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!

I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))
PHP and natural sorting

If you sort (8, 9, 10, 11, 12), how do you want them to be output? "In the order you've just listed, Graham", you'll probably say. But if they're strings and you sort them, then you'll get the order 10, 11, 12, 8, 9 output if you just use a default sort, because the character "1" comes before the character "8" in the alphabet.

Using PHP, you could write your own sort routine (using usort) ... but there's a better way - a function called "natsort". Remember the PHP rule of thumb - if you think surely someone's done that before then often the solution will be there's a function to do that.

Here's an example of the output from an illustrative program:

Original
0 .. 12 Drummers Drumming
1 .. 7 Swans a'Swimming
2 .. 11 Pipers Piping
3 .. 9 Ladies Dancing
4 .. 10 Lords a'Leaping
5 .. 8 Maid a'Milking
Default Sort
0 .. 10 Lords a'Leaping
1 .. 11 Pipers Piping
2 .. 12 Drummers Drumming
3 .. 7 Swans a'Swimming
4 .. 8 Maid a'Milking
5 .. 9 Ladies Dancing
Numeric sort
0 .. 7
1 .. 8
2 .. 9
3 .. 10
4 .. 11
5 .. 12
Natural Sort
1 .. 7 Swans a'Swimming
5 .. 8 Maid a'Milking
3 .. 9 Ladies Dancing
4 .. 10 Lords a'Leaping
2 .. 11 Pipers Piping
0 .. 12 Drummers Drumming

This program can be run from here and you can view the source code here.
(written 2004-09-19, updated 2006-06-05)

 
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
H999 - Additional PHP Material
  [239] What and why for the epoch - (2005-03-08)
  [320] Ordnance Survey - using a 'Get a map' - (2005-05-22)
  [322] More maps - (2005-05-23)
  [337] the array returned by preg_match_all - (2005-06-06)
  [372] Time calculation in PHP - (2005-07-08)
  [468] Stand alone PHP programs - (2005-10-18)
  [483] Double Dollars in PHP - (2005-11-02)
  [493] Running a Perl script within a PHP page - (2005-11-12)
  [563] Merging pictures using PHP and GD - (2006-01-13)
  [603] PHP - setting sort order with an associative array - (2006-02-13)
  [665] PHP Image viewing application - (2006-04-01)
  [687] Presentation, Business and Persistence layers in Perl and PHP - (2006-04-17)
  [789] Hot answers in PHP - (2006-07-02)
  [806] Check your user is human. Have him retype a word in a graphic - (2006-07-17)
  [822] PHP - a team member leaves - (2006-08-04)
  [839] Reporting on the 10 largest files or 10 top scores - (2006-08-20)
  [917] Syntax checking in PHP - (2006-11-07)
  [937] Display an image from a MySQL database in a web page via PHP - (2006-11-22)
  [1010] Dates, times, clickable diarys in PHP - (2006-12-28)
  [1020] Parallel processing in PHP - (2007-01-03)
  [1053] Sorting people by name in PHP - (2007-01-26)
  [1104] Drawing dynamic graphs in PHP - (2007-03-09)
  [1194] Drawing hands on a clock face - PHP - (2007-05-19)
  [1270] PHP Standalone - keyboard to screen - (2007-07-18)
  [1389] Controlling and labelling Google maps via PHP - (2007-10-13)
  [1390] Converting from postal address to latitude / longitude - (2007-10-13)
  [1391] Ordnance Survey Grid Reference to Latitude / Longitude - (2007-10-14)
  [1451] More PHP sample and demonstration programs - (2007-12-01)
  [1485] Copyright and theft of images, bandwidth and members. - (2007-12-26)
  [1505] Script to present commonly used images - PHP - (2008-01-13)
  [1519] Flipping images on your web page - (2008-01-26)
  [1623] PHP Techniques - a workshop - (2008-04-26)
  [2073] Extra PHP Examples - (2009-03-09)
  [2215] If nothing, make it nothing. - (2009-06-02)
  [2684] Exception handling in PHP - (2010-03-18)
  [3118] Arrays of arrays - or 2D arrays. How to program tables. - (2011-01-02)
  [3210] Catchable fatal error in PHP ... How to catch, and alternative solutions such as JSON - (2011-03-22)
  [4655] Image indexer / thumbnail display scripts in PHP - (2016-02-25)

H107 - String Handling in PHP
  [31] Here documents - (2004-08-28)
  [422] PHP Magic Quotes - (2005-08-22)
  [463] Splitting the difference - (2005-10-13)
  [558] Converting between acres and hectares - (2006-01-08)
  [560] The fencepost problem - (2006-01-10)
  [574] PHP - dividing a string up into pieces - (2006-01-23)
  [589] Robust PHP user inputs - (2006-02-03)
  [608] Don't expose your regular expressions - (2006-02-15)
  [642] How similar are two words - (2006-03-11)
  [716] Evaluating arithmetic expressions in configuration files - (2006-05-10)
  [728] Looking ahead and behind in a Regular Expression - (2006-05-22)
  [1008] Date conversion - PHP - (2006-12-26)
  [1058] PHP Regular expression to extrtact link and text - (2007-01-31)
  [1195] Regular Express Primer - (2007-05-20)
  [1336] Ignore case in Regular Expression - (2007-09-08)
  [1372] A taster PHP expression ... - (2007-09-30)
  [1533] Short and sweet and sticky - PHP form input - (2008-02-06)
  [1603] Do not SHOUT and do not whisper - (2008-04-06)
  [1613] Regular expression for 6 digits OR 25 digits - (2008-04-16)
  [1799] Regular Expressions in PHP - (2008-09-16)
  [2046] Finding variations on a surname - (2009-02-17)
  [2165] Making Regular Expressions easy to read and maintain - (2009-05-10)
  [2238] Handling nasty characters - Perl, PHP, Python, Tcl, Lua - (2009-06-14)
  [2629] Curly braces within double quoted strings in PHP - (2010-02-09)
  [3020] Handling (expanding) tabs in PHP - (2010-10-29)
  [3424] Divide 10000 by 17. Do you get 588.235294117647, 588.24 or 588? - Ruby and PHP - (2011-09-08)
  [3515] PHP - moving from ereg to preg for regular expressions - (2011-11-11)
  [3516] Regular Expression modifiers in PHP - summary table - (2011-11-12)
  [3534] Learning to program in PHP - Regular Expression and Associative Array examples - (2011-12-01)
  [3788] Getting more than a yes / no answer from a regular expression pattern match - (2012-06-30)
  [3789] More than just matching with a regular expression in PHP - (2012-06-30)
  [3790] Solution looking for a problem? Lookahead and Lookbehind - (2012-06-30)
  [4071] Setting up strings in PHP - (2013-04-27)
  [4072] Splitting the difference with PHP - (2013-04-27)


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Evening classes to learn PHP
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Call Centres, selling, and a pause for thought
Posting 1000 letters!
Dress Code
Evening classes to learn PHP
PHP and natural sorting
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International awareness
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Current cost in your local currency
Business is the predominant user of Tomcat, Perl and Tcl
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This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

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