Re: RFC proposal for adding SORT_STRICT flag to array_unique()

On 2025-10-25 08:34, Jason Marble wrote:

Hello everybody! The potential for a SORT_NATURAL flag also came to mind as another useful addition, but I believe SORT_STRICT is the more critical feature to discuss first.

I know I find array_unique generally useless due to its insistence on stringifying everything for comparison.

$uniques = [];
foreach($source_array as $a) {
    if(!in_array($a, $uniques, true)) {
        $uniques[] = $a;
    }
}

I seem to recall part of the issue is that array_unique works by sorting its elements so that "equal" values are adjacent. I know this would be done on O(n log(n)) vs. O(n^2) grounds, but that could be addressed at least in part by a smarter sort criterion that sorts by type/class (in some arbitrary order) before sorting by value. For uncomparable types (i.e., instances of most classes) this would be by object ID, because we don't _actually_ care about ordering.