Simple sorting

simple-sorting.php

<?php
function sort_modules_by_position_only_A( $a, $b ) {
	return (int) $a->position - (int) $b->position;
}

function sort_modules_by_position_only_B( $a, $b ) {
	return ( (int) $a->position < (int) $b->position ) ? -1 : 1;
}


$data = array(
	(object) array( 'name' => 'Test A', 'position' => 5 ),
	(object) array( 'name' => 'Test B', 'position' => 4 ),
	(object) array( 'name' => 'Test C', 'position' => 3 ),
	(object) array( 'name' => 'Test D', 'position' => 2 ),
	(object) array( 'name' => 'Test E', 'position' => 1 ),
);

uasort( $data, 'sort_modules_by_position_only_A' );

var_export( $data );

uasort( $data, 'sort_modules_by_position_only_B' );

var_export( $data );

@Andrea, I wanted to avoid the function to return a 0. This happens when 2 blocks have the same position, but with 2 different parents.

The sorting functions in PHP are not always stable, but it seems that it's slightly better when we return only -1 or 1 (maybe just an impression). Under the hood, the sorting algorithm is different depending on the size of the array.

With both sorting function, you will see that the "position" order is respected, but we loose the original order when 2 elements have the same position.

This does not affect my logic because we have a second pass to re-order the parents and children.