Question

I need to get the top 5 most listed items out an array .
i have an array of states names, and i need the top 5 most listed states array_unique() doesn’t work because i don’t want to remove them…. i know i will need a for-loop some where im here….

php code:

<?
array(
'Florida', Illinois,New York, Texas, Florida, Alabama,California, Arizona,
'Florida', Illinois,New York, Texas, Florida, Alabama, Florida, Florida, texas.....
)
// now i want to get the top 5 listed within the array....
?>

Answer 1

// trimming as there could be white space
// then count the frequency of each values. 
// see http://php.net/array_count_values for more.
$stat = array_count_values(array_map('trim', $data)); 

// sorting the array by *value* (a) keeping key associativity
// sorting order would be descending (r). 
// hence the sort function arsort()
arsort($stat);
// $stat contains your data

Related Links

1. array_count_values
2. arsort
3. array_map
4. Sorting function attributes