Question

I have an object structured like so:

Array 
( 
    [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => Europe ) 
    [1] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => South America ) 
    [3] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => North America ) 
    [4] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [0] => Asia )
)

I am trying to sort the objects alphabetically. I’ve tried using sort() on the array as a whole, but it’s not working. I am assuming it was just grabbing the name of the object, which is the same in all cases and sorting those instead. I am trying to access the text inside each object but can’t seem to do it without bringing the ‘SimpleXMLElement Object()’ text with it. How would I access that text and perhaps recreate a new array with just the text values?

EDIT: I’ve tried the following:

$regions = sort($regions);
$regions = usort($regions);

Thanks!

Answer 1

You can use usort:

<?php
function pony_sorting($a, $b)
{
    if ((string)$a[0] == (string)$b[0) {
        return 0;
    }
    return ((string)$a[0] < (string)$b[0]) ? -1 : 1;
}

usort($a, "pony_sorting");

This will keep the data structure of your array. But if you don’t care about your SimpleXML elements, just export it in a clean and more memory efficient array.

$clean = array();
foreach ($a as $simplexml)
{
  $clean[] = (string)$simplexml[0];
}

Note the (string) cast, allowing to get the actual value of the simpleXmlElement.