Sort array with timestamps?

Question

I have an array of timestamps that look like this:

2012-11-19 19:45

I need to sort them by date. I could do a bubble sort or something if i could get the unix timestamp of a date, but i don't know what function gives me that. I looked at strtotime but it won't let me pass a date format. I'm also not sure a bubble sort is the best way to go.

Any suggestions?

Array example:

Also, sorry, i should have mentioned it was in 'show_date'.

Array
(
    [15] => Array
        (
            [show_date] => 2012-11-19 10:40
        )

    [16] => Array
        (
            [show_date] => 2012-11-20 10:40
        )

    [17] => Array
        (
            [show_date] => 2012-11-21 10:40
        )

    [18] => Array
        (
            [show_date] => 2012-11-22 10:40
        )

)

Answer 1

No need to overcomplicate this. Just use the built-in sort function:

sort($timestamp_array);

You don't need to convert to UNIX timestamps because the strings are in the standard "ISO sortable date" format. That means that if you sort the strings, the dates will be in the correct order.

Here is a php -a session that shows how it works:

php > $ts = array('1986-01-31 12:11', '2012-01-01 13:12', '1980-10-10 12:00');
php > sort($ts);
php > echo var_export($ts);
array (
  0 => '1980-10-10 12:00',
  1 => '1986-01-31 12:11',
  2 => '2012-01-01 13:12',
)