How can developers debug and troubleshoot issues related to inconsistent sorting results in PHP, especially when dealing with arrays containing a combination of strings and integers?

When dealing with arrays containing a combination of strings and integers in PHP, inconsistent sorting results can occur due to the different data types. To address this issue, developers can use a custom sorting function that explicitly handles the comparison of strings and integers. By implementing a custom sorting function that converts values to a common data type before comparison, developers can ensure consistent sorting results.

function customSort($a, $b) {
    if (is_numeric($a) && is_numeric($b)) {
        return $a - $b;
    } else {
        return strcmp($a, $b);
    }
}

$array = [3, '2', '1', 4, '10', '9'];
usort($array, 'customSort');

print_r($array);