Php sort multiple xmlDoc by date - php

Question

I am pulling a list of blog pages from a .XML file and printing the 2 newest entries for a web page. I however have no idea how to sort the .XML files by pubDate or file_edited.
The code successfully retrieves the files and prints the two newest entries.
Here is the PHP code block that retrieves the files and prints them.
<?php
date_default_timezone_set('Europe/Helsinki');
/* XML Source URL:s */
$pages=("blog/data/other/pages.xml");
/* XML Doc Conversions */
$xmlDoc = new DOMDocument();
echo "<div class='blog_article_wrapper'>";
function myFunction($x){
// Run 2 times, skip first file and stop loop.
for ($i=1; $i<=2; $i++) {
//Get "Title
$item_title=$x->item($i)->getElementsByTagName('title')
->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue;
//Get "Date" from .XML document.
$item_date=$x->item($i)->getElementsByTagName('pubDate')
->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue;
//Get "URL" from .XML document.
$item_url=$x->item($i)->getElementsByTagName('url')
->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue;
//Get "Author" from .XML document.
$item_author=$x->item($i)->getElementsByTagName('author')
->item(0)->childNodes->item(0)->nodeValue;
//Format date and author
$item_date = date('d.m.Y', strtotime($item_date));
$item_author = ucfirst(strtolower($item_author));
//Get content data from specifix .XML document being iterated in loop
$url=("blog/data/pages/" . $item_url . ".xml");
$xmlDoc = new DOMDocument();
$xmlDoc->load($url);
$y=$xmlDoc->getElementsByTagName('content')->item(0)->nodeValue;
//Limit content to 150 letters and first paragraph tag.
$start = strpos($y, '<p>="') + 9;
$length = strpos($y, '"</p>') - $start;
$src = substr($y, $start, $length);
$item_content = "\"" . (substr($src, 0, 150)) . "...\"";
// Page specific code for output comes here.
}
}
//Call loop and iterate data
$xmlDoc->load($pages);
$x=$xmlDoc->getElementsByTagName('item');
myFunction($x);
?>
Any advice, code or articles pointing in the right direction would be much appreciated.
Thank you!

Answer 1

I figured this out my self using another stackoverflow question and php.net
//Directory where files are stored.
$folder = "blog/data/pages/";
$array = array();
//scandir and populate array with filename as key and filemtime as value.
foreach (scandir($folder) as $node) {
$nodePath = $folder . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $node;
if (is_dir($nodePath)) continue;
$array[$nodePath] = filemtime($nodePath);
}
//Sort entry and store two newest files into $newest
arsort($array);
$newest = array_slice($array, 0, 2);
// $newest is now populated with name of .XML document as key and filemtime as value
// Use built in functions array_keys() and array_values() to access data
?>
I can now modify the original code in the question to use only these two outputted files for retrieving the desired data.