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<?php $string = 'Spider-man|Spider-man 2|Spider-man 3|Apple|Google|Banana|Citrus'; $result = array(); foreach(explode('|', $string) as $item) { $firstLetter = $item[0]; if(!isset($result[$firstLetter])) { $result[$firstLetter] = array(); } $result[$firstLetter][] = $item; } ksort($result); var_dump($result);
Output for 4.3.0 - 4.3.11, 4.4.0 - 4.4.9, 5.0.0 - 5.0.5, 5.1.0 - 5.1.6, 5.2.0 - 5.2.17, 5.3.0 - 5.3.29, 5.4.0 - 5.4.45, 5.5.0 - 5.5.38, 5.6.0 - 5.6.40, 7.0.0 - 7.0.33, 7.1.0 - 7.1.33, 7.2.0 - 7.2.33, 7.3.0 - 7.3.33, 7.4.0 - 7.4.33, 8.0.0 - 8.0.30, 8.1.0 - 8.1.28, 8.2.0 - 8.2.18, 8.3.0 - 8.3.6
array(5) { ["A"]=> array(1) { [0]=> string(5) "Apple" } ["B"]=> array(1) { [0]=> string(6) "Banana" } ["C"]=> array(1) { [0]=> string(6) "Citrus" } ["G"]=> array(1) { [0]=> string(6) "Google" } ["S"]=> array(3) { [0]=> string(10) "Spider-man" [1]=> string(12) "Spider-man 2" [2]=> string(12) "Spider-man 3" } }

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315.7 ms | 406 KiB | 460 Q