Question

I have an array let say $array = array(2, 1, 8, 3, 6, 0, 10, 10)and I want to get second largest value of that array.
Which sorting/searching technique will be best & how could I use it?

Answer 1

I’d just remove the duplicates from your array (using array_unique) and then use rsort (which uses Quicksort) with the SORT_NUMERIC flag to sort numerically from highest to lowest:

$array = array(2, 1, 8, 3, 6, 0, 10, 10);
$unique_array = array_unique($array);
rsort($unique_array, SORT_NUMERIC);
$second_highest = $unique_array[1];  // will be 8

The PHP manual has a comparison of sorting techniques.