Online PHP editor | output for OZ7VD

<?php $payload = [ ['other_value_y' => 'y', 'reference' => '423-52', 'other_value_x' => 'x'], ['other_value_y' => 'y', 'reference' => '223-52', 'other_value_x' => 'x'], ['other_value_y' => 'y', 'reference' => '5423-52', 'other_value_x' => 'x'], ['other_value_y' => 'y', 'reference' => '823-52', 'other_value_x' => 'x'], ['other_value_y' => 'y', 'reference' => '123-52', 'other_value_x' => 'x'], ]; usort($payload, static function (array $a, array $b) { if (!isset($a['reference']) || !isset($b['reference'])) { throw new \RuntimeException('Missing array key "reference"', 1671615426); } // "Remove all characters except digits, plus and minus sign." // (consequence `-123-45-67` is treated as (negative) `-1234567`) // sse https://www.php.net/manual/en/filter.filters.sanitize.php return filter_var($a['reference'], FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT) <=> filter_var($b['reference'], FILTER_SANITIZE_NUMBER_INT); }); print_r($payload);