sorting array from text file by date

[csbdeady]

Hi there

I've a text file like this:

a
b
02/02/2002
d
e
01/01/2001

I can load this into an array using file() but I then want (assuming this is a good way to do this?) to sort that array by the date, thus want to put it into a multidimensional array.

Basically every three lines in the original array is 1 record.

With the above example how can I get two records in an array sorted by date, ie:

record 1 = d,e,01/01/2001
record 2 = a,b,02/02/2002

Unfortunately the format of the text files is fixed.

Hope that makes sense!
Thanks
-Colin

 

[sleipnir214]

I would loop through, reading a line at a time. Have a buffer that consists of two elements, which will hold the non-date values.

I would use an associative array for storing the values. Convert the dates fo YYYY/MM/DD for storage, and use them as the keys of the array. Dates that are in YYYY/MM/DD format are in date order when they are in alphabetical order.

Then use ksort() (

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.ksort.php)

to sort the array. Want the best answers? Ask the best questions:

http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

TANSTAAFL!