How to sort an array of times chronologically?

user_341611 0
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I have a non-associative array where the data that comes in is not sorted (I'm receiving the data from an outside system and cannot force it to come into the array in sorted order.) Is there any way to sort the values? I've tried this:

$wedTrackTimes = array("9:30 AM-10:30 AM", "8:15 AM-9:15 AM", "12:30 PM-1:30 PM", "2:00 PM-3:00 PM", "3:30 PM-4:30 PM");
$wedTrackTimes = array_unique($wedTrackTimes);
$wedTrackTimes = sort($wedTrackTimes);
print_r($wedTrackTimes);

But instead of returning a sorted array, it returns 1. I'm assuming it's because it's non-associative, so there are no keys. Is there any way to sort an array by value only? We really need the 9:30 AM time slot to fall after the 8:15 AM slot, as it should.

UPDATE

Thanks to all for the answers; that did make the array sort, but not as expected. If I use the default sort type, I get this:

Array
(
    [0] => 12:30 PM-1:30 PM
    [1] => 2:00 PM-3:00 PM
    [2] => 3:30 PM-4:30 PM
    [3] => 8:15 AM-9:15 AM
    [4] => 9:30 AM-10:30 AM
)

Using SORT_NUMERIC I get this:

Array
(
    [0] => 2:00 PM-3:00 PM
    [1] => 3:30 PM-4:30 PM
    [2] => 8:15 AM-9:15 AM
    [3] => 9:30 AM-10:30 AM
    [4] => 12:30 PM-1:30 PM
)

Using SORT_STRING I get this:

Array
(
    [0] => 12:30 PM-1:30 PM
    [1] => 2:00 PM-3:00 PM
    [2] => 3:30 PM-4:30 PM
    [3] => 8:15 AM-9:15 AM
    [4] => 9:30 AM-10:30 AM
)

What I need is:

Array
(
    [0] => 8:15 AM-9:15 AM
    [1] => 9:30 AM-10:30 AM
    [2] => 12:30 PM-1:30 PM
    [3] => 2:00 PM-3:00 PM
    [4] => 3:30 PM-4:30 PM


)

Is this possible?

time sorting arrays php
8 Answers

Sensibly sorting on time (chronologically) will call for strtotime().

Here is a one-liner for you using array_multisort(). array_map() and strtotime() are called to generate an array to be used purely for the sorting order.

array_multisort(array_map(function($v){return strtotime(strstr($v,'-',true));},$wedTrackTimes),$wedTrackTimes);

For anyone that is lost in that syntax, here is the same functionality on more lines.

Code: (Demo)

$wedTrackTimes=[
    "9:30 AM-10:30 AM",
    "8:15 AM-9:15 AM",
    "12:30 PM-1:30 PM",
    "2:00 PM-3:00 PM",
    "3:30 PM-4:30 PM"
];

foreach($wedTrackTimes as $time){  // iterate the time strings
    $timestamps[]=strtotime(strstr($time,'-',true));  // store the first time of the time range as a unix timestamp
}
array_multisort($timestamps,$wedTrackTimes);  // use $timestamps to sort $wedTrackTimes

var_export($wedTrackTimes);

Output:

array (
  0 => '8:15 AM-9:15 AM',
  1 => '9:30 AM-10:30 AM',
  2 => '12:30 PM-1:30 PM',
  3 => '2:00 PM-3:00 PM',
  4 => '3:30 PM-4:30 PM',
)
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