Question

Does anyone know how to sort an array into alternating smallest largest values?

I.E.

Array (10, 2, 5, 1, 30, 1, 7)

Should be :

(30, 1, 10, 1, 7, 2, 5)

EDIT:

Forgot to mention the arrays are associative, so:

Array("A"=>10, "B"=>2, "C"=>5, "D"=>1, "E"=>30, "F"=>1, "G"=>7)

Should become:

("E"=>30, "D"=>1, "A"=>10, "F"=>1, "G"=>7, "B"=>2, "C"=>5)

Answer 1

Sort your array then push elements from beginning and end of the array alternatively:

<?php

    $myArray = array(10, 2, 5, 1, 30, 1, 7);
    sort($myArray );
    $count=sizeof($myArray );

    $result= array();
    
    for($counter=0; $counter * 2 < $count; $counter++){

         array_push($result, $myArray[$count - $counter - 1]);
         //check if same elements (when the count is odd)
         if ($counter != $count - $counter - 1) {
             array_push($result, $myArray[$counter]);
         }

    }
    print_r ($result);

?>

returns:

Array ( [0] => 30 [1] => 1 [2] => 10 [3] => 1 [4] => 7 [5] => 2 [6] => 5 )