add this loop to the function above if you want items which have the same first characters to be listed in a way that the shorter string comes first.
--------------------
/* short before longer (e.g. 'abc' should come before 'abcd') */
for($i=count($array)-1;$i>0;$i--) {
$str_a = $array[$i ];
$str_b = $array[$i-1];
$cmp_a = strtolower(substr($str_a,0,strlen($str_a)));
$cmp_b = strtolower(substr($str_b,0,strlen($str_a)));
if ($cmp_a==$cmp_b && strlen($str_a)<strlen($str_b)) {
$array[$i]=$str_b; $array[$i-1]=$str_a; $i+=2;
}
}
--------------------
