huge php array

[eluser]Reynolds[/eluser]
Hello guys,

If I load a thousands of data into a PHP array, assuming the data came from iteration in a db result.
Does it eat a lot of memory? and how is it computed? is it feasible? if not what could be the best solution?

The problem is, I need to sort (shown as list on view) a computation result from several fields. But I was thinking if I just put all db result into an array, then compute it, finally sort it. Or should I just create a MYSQL FUNCTION to do the computation? so I could sort without creating a PHP array?

Thanks in advance,