To do this efficiently, you would index the data using the (xxx) values, then sort the data using that index.
If this is in a database table, you would create a column and populate it with the xxx values, then just sort on that column in a query.
If you must do this using php code, see this example -
<?php
$data =
Array (
1 => '/records/5000/[0xxxx822]_0xxx822-5xxx_20210324103339(366).wav',
2 => '/records/5xxx/[061xxx77]_0614xxxxx-5xxx_20210324104338(372).wav',
3 => '/records/5000/[08xxx3]_081xxxxx3-5xxx_20210324072915(299).wav',
4 => '/records/5xxx/[0xxx2xxx]_08xxxx5-5xxx_20210324085839(348).wav',
);
// call-back function to index the data using the (xxx) value
function _index($element)
{
// if you need complex pattern matching, use preg_match here, otherwise use simple, faster, string statements
$start = strpos($element,'(');
$end = strpos($element,')');
$index = substr($element, $start+1, $end-$start-1);
return [$index,$element];
}
// index the data
$data = array_map('_index',$data);
// function to dynamically build a usort sorter
function build_sorter($key, $direction = 'asc') {
return function ($a, $b) use ($key, $direction) {
if($direction == 'asc')
{
return strnatcmp($a[$key], $b[$key]);
} else {
// anything other than 'asc' will sort descending
return strnatcmp($b[$key], $a[$key]);
}
};
}
// usort using the 0th column, descending
usort($data, build_sorter(0,'desc'));
echo '<pre>'; print_r($data);
