PHP Manual
Array Functions
Sort an array with a user-defined comparison function and maintain index association

uasort

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

uasort — Sort an array with a user-defined comparison function and maintain index association

Description

uasort(array &$array, callable $callback): bool

Sorts array in place such that its keys maintain their correlation with the values they are associated with, using a user-defined comparison function.

This is used mainly when sorting associative arrays where the actual element order is significant.

Note:
If two members compare as equal, they retain their original order. Prior to PHP 8.0.0, their relative order in the sorted array was undefined.

Note:
Resets array's internal pointer to the first element.

Parameters

array: The input array.
callback: The comparison function must return an integer less than, equal to, or greater than zero if the first argument is considered to be respectively less than, equal to, or greater than the second.

callback(mixed $a, mixed $b): int

Return Values

Always returns true.

Changelog

Version	Description
8.0.0	If `callback` expects a parameter to be passed by reference, this function will now emit an `E_WARNING`.

Examples

Example #1 Basic uasort() example


<?php
// Comparison function
function cmp($a, $b) {
    if ($a == $b) {
        return 0;
    }
    return ($a < $b) ? -1 : 1;
}

// Array to be sorted
$array = array('a' => 4, 'b' => 8, 'c' => -1, 'd' => -9, 'e' => 2, 'f' => 5, 'g' => 3, 'h' => -4);
print_r($array);

// Sort and print the resulting array
uasort($array, 'cmp');
print_r($array);
?>

The above example will output:

Array
(
    [a] => 4
    [b] => 8
    [c] => -1
    [d] => -9
    [e] => 2
    [f] => 5
    [g] => 3
    [h] => -4
)
Array
(
    [d] => -9
    [h] => -4
    [c] => -1
    [e] => 2
    [g] => 3
    [a] => 4
    [f] => 5
    [b] => 8
)