Sort a php array returning new array

Here's a one-liner:

call_user_func(function(array $a){asort($a);return $a;}, $some_mixed_array);

As others have said, your best bet is to create a custom function. However, in order to maintain flexibility with the future of PHP, I would use a variadic function. Essentially, you set your function to accepts whatever parameters are passed to it, and pass them through to the actual sort() function. Done this way, you can use whatever optional parameters exist for the standard function you're putting the wrapper around -- even if those parameters change in the future.

function mysort( ...$params ) {
    sort( ...$params );
    return $params[0];
}

Would you be able to do this?

$some_mixed_array = array( 998, 6, 430 );
function custom_sort( $array )
{
  // Sort it
  asort($array);

  // return sorted array
  return $array;
}

custom_sort( $some_mixed_array );

// returning: array( 6, 430, 998 )

This would also solve your issue:

$some_mixed_array = array( 998, 6, 430 );
echo '<pre>'.print_r($some_mixed_array, true).'</pre>';

asort($some_mixed_array); // <- BAM!

// returning: array( 6, 430, 998 )
echo '<pre>'.print_r($some_mixed_array, true).'</pre>';