strnatcmp

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)

strnatcmp — String comparisons using a "natural order" algorithm

Descrierea

strnatcmp ( string $string1 , string $string2 ) : int

This function implements a comparison algorithm that orders alphanumeric strings in the way a human being would, this is described as a "natural ordering". Note that this comparison is case sensitive.

Parametri

string1: The first string.
string2: The second string.

Valorile întoarse

Similar to other string comparison functions, this one returns < 0 if string1 is less than string2; > 0 if string1 is greater than string2, and 0 if they are equal.

Exemple

An example of the difference between this algorithm and the regular computer string sorting algorithms (used in strcmp()) can be seen below:


<?php
$arr1 = $arr2 = array("img12.png", "img10.png", "img2.png", "img1.png");
echo "Standard string comparison\n";
usort($arr1, "strcmp");
print_r($arr1);
echo "\nNatural order string comparison\n";
usort($arr2, "strnatcmp");
print_r($arr2);
?>

Exemplul de mai sus va afișa:

Standard string comparison
Array
(
    [0] => img1.png
    [1] => img10.png
    [2] => img12.png
    [3] => img2.png
)

Natural order string comparison
Array
(
    [0] => img1.png
    [1] => img2.png
    [2] => img10.png
    [3] => img12.png
)

For more information see: Martin Pool's » Natural Order String Comparison page.

A se vedea și

preg_match() - Perform a regular expression match
strcasecmp() - Binary safe case-insensitive string comparison
substr() - Return part of a string
stristr() - Case-insensitive strstr
strcmp() - Binary safe string comparison
strncmp() - Binary safe string comparison of the first n characters
strncasecmp() - Binary safe case-insensitive string comparison of the first n characters
strnatcasecmp() - Case insensitive string comparisons using a "natural order" algorithm
strstr() - Find the first occurrence of a string
natsort() - Sort an array using a "natural order" algorithm
natcasesort() - Sort an array using a case insensitive "natural order" algorithm

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User Contributed Notes 4 notes

down

in dot games dot mq at gmail dot com ¶

7 years ago


Can also be used with combination of a compare for an array nested value, like

<?php
$array = array(
    "city" => "xyz",
    "names" => array(
        array(
            "name" => "Ana2",
            "id" => 1
        ) ,
        array(
            "name" => "Ana1",
            "id" => 2
        )
    )
);
usort($array["names"], function ($a, $b)    {    return strnatcmp($a['name'], $b['name']);} );

down

thomas at uninet dot se ¶

18 years ago


There seems to be a bug in the localization for strnatcmp and strnatcasecmp. I searched the reported bugs and found a few entries which were up to four years old (but the problem still exists when using swedish characters).

These functions might work instead.
<?php
function _strnatcasecmp($left, $right) {
  return _strnatcmp(strtolower($left), strtolower($right));
}

function _strnatcmp($left, $right) {
  while((strlen($left) > 0) && (strlen($right) > 0)) {
    if(preg_match('/^([^0-9]*)([0-9].*)$/Us', $left, $lMatch)) {
      $lTest = $lMatch[1];
      $left = $lMatch[2];
    } else {
      $lTest = $left;
      $left = '';
    }
    if(preg_match('/^([^0-9]*)([0-9].*)$/Us', $right, $rMatch)) {
      $rTest = $rMatch[1];
      $right = $rMatch[2];
    } else {
      $rTest = $right;
      $right = '';
    }
    $test = strcmp($lTest, $rTest);
    if($test != 0) {
      return $test;
    }
    if(preg_match('/^([0-9]+)([^0-9].*)?$/Us', $left, $lMatch)) {
      $lTest = intval($lMatch[1]);
      $left = $lMatch[2];
    } else {
      $lTest = 0;
    }
    if(preg_match('/^([0-9]+)([^0-9].*)?$/Us', $right, $rMatch)) {
      $rTest = intval($rMatch[1]);
      $right = $rMatch[2];
    } else {
      $rTest = 0;
    }
    $test = $lTest - $rTest;
    if($test != 0) {
      return $test;
    }
  }
  return strcmp($left, $right);
}
?>

The code is not optimized. It was just made to solve my problem.

down

-1

chris at ocproducts dot com ¶

7 years ago


This function has some interesting behaviour on strings consisting of mixed numbers and letters.

One may expect that such a mixed string would be treated as alpha-numeric, but that is not true.

var_dump(strnatcmp('23','123')); →
int(-1)
As expected, 23<123   (even though first digit is higher, overall number is smaller)

var_dump(strnatcmp('yz','xyz')); →
int(1)
As expected, yz>xyz   (string comparison, irregardless of string length)

var_dump(strnatcmp('2x','12y')); →
int(-1)
Remarkable, 2x<12y    (does a numeric comparison)

var_dump(strnatcmp('20x','12y'));
int(1)
Remarkable, 20x>12y    (does a numeric comparison)

It seems to be splitting what is being compared into runs of numbers and letters, and then comparing each run in isolation, until it has an ordering difference.

down

-4

spamspamspam at gmx dot com ¶

6 years ago


Some more remarkable outcomes:

var_dump(strnatcmp("0.15m", "0.2m"));
int(1)

var_dump(strnatcmp("0.15m", "0.20m"));
int(-1)

It's not about localisation:

var_dump(strnatcmp("0,15m", "0,2m"));
int(1)

var_dump(strnatcmp("0,15m", "0,20m"));
int(-1)

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