!empty($line)); foreach ($lines as $line) { [$a, $b] = explode(" ", $line); $list_1[] = $a; $list_2[] = $b; } sort($list_1); sort($list_2); $total = 0; for ($i=0, $l=count($list_1); $i < $l; $i++) { $total += abs($list_1[$i] - $list_2[$i]); } echo $total;