Compare decimal numbers in an alphanumeric value without preg_replace - PHP

Question

Is it possible to compare decimal values for a value that also contains alphanumeric characters without using preg_replace or stripping out the non-numeric values?

For instance comparing these 2 decimal values only ( ignoring any letters) with a simple operator like >:
'down0.1.5.3'
'down0.1.7.1'

Answer 1

Have a look at strnatcmp(). It might do exactly what you are looking for.

Answer 2

var_dump(version_compare('down0.1.5.3', 'down0.1.7.1'));
var_dump(version_compare('down0.1.8.3', 'down0.1.7.1'));

version_compare()