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POOrder files by unconventional date in filename (PHP)
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  1. POOrder files by unconventional date in filename (PHP)
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    copied!<p>I'm working with a PHP script that allows the chronological browsing of Eggdrop-generated IRC logs. Initially, I was reading the directory contents and inserting the log names into an array based on file modification date. After a recent server move, however, the files have had their modification dates updated and the navigation is now disorderly!</p> <p>The log filename structure looks like:</p> <pre><code>channel.log.dayMONTHyear.txt </code></pre> <p>for example:</p> <pre><code>shrawberry.log.08Apr2011.txt </code></pre> <p>which, for being quite human-readable, is difficult to order properly.</p> <p>Since the month code is always three characters long and comes in a predictable position in the sequence, I could manually parse the nonstandard date code into a Unix timestamp, iterate through the list and add each item to an array with that timestamp, and then sort the array by that number.</p> <p>But that sounds excessive.</p> <p>Am I on the money, or is the solution I proposed ideal?</p> <hr> <p>With Marc B.'s help, I've implemented the following:</p> <pre><code>function dateFromEggLog($string){ $month = substr($string,-11,-8); $day = substr($string,-13,-11); $year = substr($string,-8,-4); for($i=1;$i&lt;=12;$i++){ if(strtolower(date("M", mktime(0, 0, 0, $i, 1, 0))) == strtolower($month)){ $month = $i; break; } } return "$year-$month-$day"; } function my_compare($a, $b) { $a_date = dateFromEggLog($a); $b_date = dateFromEggLog($b); if ($a_date == $b_date) { return 0; } $a = strtotime($a_date); // convert to PHP timestamp $b = strtotime($b_date); // convert to PHP timestamp return (($a &lt; $b) ? -1 : 1); } </code></pre> <p>This successfully sorts my logs, without needing to muck around with my array.</p>
 

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