# natsort

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

natsort — Sort an array using a "natural order" algorithm

### Description

bool natsort ( array `&$array` )

This function implements a sort algorithm that orders alphanumeric strings in the way a human being would while maintaining key/value associations. This is described as a "natural ordering". An example of the difference between this algorithm and the regular computer string sorting algorithms (used in sort()) can be seen below:

Returns `TRUE` on success or `FALSE` on failure.

Example#1 natsort() example

`<?php
$array1 = $array2 = array("img12.png", "img10.png", "img2.png", "img1.png");
sort($array1);
echo "Standard sorting\n";
print_r($array1);
natsort($array2);
echo "\nNatural order sorting\n";
print_r($array2);
?>`

The above example will output:

    Standard sorting
    Array
    (
        [0] => img1.png
        [1] => img10.png
        [2] => img12.png
        [3] => img2.png
    )

    Natural order sorting
    Array
    (
        [3] => img1.png
        [2] => img2.png
        [1] => img10.png
        [0] => img12.png
    )

For more information see: Martin Pool's » Natural Order String Comparison page.

See also natcasesort(), strnatcmp(), and strnatcasecmp().