Preserving Key Order During Sorting with PHP's uasort
Query:
Is it possible to sort the values of an associative array in PHP while maintaining the original order of keys, using PHP's built-in sorting functions?
Challenge:
To achieve a stable sort where equal values retain their initial key order, a custom sorting function must be employed since PHP does not support stable sorting natively.
Solution:
A custom merge sort, which guarantees O(n*log(n)) complexity and maintains stability, can be used:
<code class="php">function mergesort(&$array, $cmp_function = 'strcmp') { // Handle base cases if (count($array) < 2) return; // Split the array into halves $halfway = count($array) / 2; $array1 = array_slice($array, 0, $halfway); $array2 = array_slice($array, $halfway); // Recursively sort the halves mergesort($array1, $cmp_function); mergesort($array2, $cmp_function); // Merge the sorted halves $array = array(); $ptr1 = $ptr2 = 0; while ($ptr1 < count($array1) && $ptr2 < count($array2)) { if (call_user_func($cmp_function, $array1[$ptr1], $array2[$ptr2]) < 1) { $array[] = $array1[$ptr1++]; } else { $array[] = $array2[$ptr2++]; } } // Merge the remaining elements while ($ptr1 < count($array1)) $array[] = $array1[$ptr1++]; while ($ptr2 < count($array2)) $array[] = $array2[$ptr2++]; }</code>
Alternative Resource:
An informative forum thread can be found at this link: [Forum Thread Link]
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