Find the 3 longest words from string - php

Question

What I need to add to this script to get 3 longest words from string?
<?php
$text = 'one four eleven no upstairs';
$arr = explode(" ", $text);
$max = $arr[0];
for ($i = 0; $i < count($arr); $i++) {
if (strlen($arr[$i]) > strlen($max)) {
$max = $arr[$i];
}
}
echo $max;
?>
Please help to modify the script. We have to not use the usort function.

Answer 1

The solution would be like this:
Use explode() to get the words of the string in an array
"Partially" sort the array elements in descending order of length
Use a simple for loop to print the longest three words from the array.
So your code should be like this:
$text = 'one four eleven no upstairs';
$arr = explode(" ", $text);
$count = count($arr);
for($i=0; $i < $count; $i++){
$max = $arr[$i];
$index = $i;
for($j = $i + 1; $j < $count; ++$j){
if(strlen($arr[$j]) > strlen($max)){
$max = $arr[$j];
$index = $j;
}
}
$tmp = $arr[$index];
$arr[$index] = $arr[$i];
$arr[$i] = $tmp;
if($i == 3) break;
}
// print the longest three words
for($i=0; $i < 3; $i++){
echo $arr[$i] . '<br />';
}
Alternative method: (Using predefined functions)
$text = 'one four eleven no upstairs';
$arr = explode(" ", $text);
usort($arr,function($a, $b){
return strlen($b)-strlen($a);
});
$longest_string_array = array_slice($arr, 0, 3);
// display $longest_string_array
var_dump($longest_string_array);

Answer 2

You need to create your own comparative function and pass it with array to usort php function.
Ex.:
<?php
function lengthBaseSort($first, $second) {
return strlen($first) > strlen($second) ? -1 : 1;
}
$text = 'one four eleven no upstairs';
$arr = explode(" ", $text);
usort($arr, 'lengthBaseSort');
var_dump(array_slice($arr, 0, 3));
It will output 3 longest words from your statement.
According to author changes:
If you have no ability to use usort for some reasons (may be for school more useful a recursive function) use following code:
<?php
$text = 'one four eleven no upstairs';
$arr = explode(" ", $text);
function findLongest($inputArray) {
$currentIndex = 0;
$currentMax = $inputArray[$currentIndex];
foreach ($inputArray as $key => $value) {
if(strlen($value) > strlen($currentMax)){
$currentMax = $value;
$currentIndex = $key;
}
}
return [$currentIndex, $currentMax];
}
for($i = 0; $i < 3; $i++) {
$result = findLongest($arr);
unset($arr[$result[0]]);
var_dump($result[1]);
}
?>