Question

ksort ($votes);
        foreach ($votes as $total => $contestant){
        $ordervotes[]= $contestant;
        } 

        echo "<li> And the winner is: {$ordervotes[4]}</li>";
        echo "<li> And the loser is: {$ordervotes[0]}</li>";
        echo "<li> {$ordervotes[1]} came second last</li>";

This works fine when none of the ‘$total’s are the same, if they are the same i get an error code. I realise I could use the ‘max/min’ to get the first and last elements of the array, but how do i go about finding the second last?

Thank you

Joe

Answer 1

Why don’t you try:

echo $votes[count($votes)-2];

You also don’t need to populate another array with the same values – you can keep them in $votes. You might also want to look into sorting your array by value instead of by key (which I assume you’re trying to do).

---

If you’re expecting duplicate keys, you need to remodel the way you’re storing your data. Consider using a multidimensional array:

$votes = array(
   array('name'=>'John','vote'=>10),
   array('name'=>'James','vote'=>11),
   array('name'=>'Jimmy','vote'=>13),
);

You will be able to sort this array using this function and code:

// This function will sort your array
function aasort (&$array, $key) {
    $sorter=array();
    $ret=array();
    reset($array);
    foreach ($array as $ii => $va) {
        $sorter[$ii]=$va[$key];
    }
    asort($sorter);
    foreach ($sorter as $ii => $va) {
        $ret[$ii]=$array[$ii];
    }
    $array=$ret;
}

// Sort the array by the 'vote' key
aasort($votes,"vote");

// Echo out the name of the second-last person
echo $votes[count($votes)-2]['name'];