PHP - Sort Array

Hi guys,

I'm trying to sort an array. The array has information about listings. ID, name, info etc.

An unrelated set of data also contains the listing ID's and I have made a function to sort this array and show an new order for the ID's. I now need to sort the original array by this new ID order...

This snippet shows that the original listings array can be sorted by link_id:
sort($this->links, $this->link->link_id); //This works. It sorts links by link ID!

In a foeach loop I have created this:
$sleeps_array[] = array("ID" => $link->link_id, "Sleeps" => $sleeps); // Makes an array of arrays of a custom field with listing ID.

It makes this:
array ( 0 => array ( 'ID' => '9', 'Sleeps' => '2', ), 1 => array ( 'ID' => '3', 'Sleeps' => '4', ), 2 => array ( 'ID' => '6', 'Sleeps' => '6', ), )

I can then sort this array of arrays with this function:

function compare_sleeps($a, $b){
return strnatcmp($a['Sleeps'], $b['Sleeps']);
} # sort alphabetically by name
usort($sleeps_array, 'compare_sleeps');

It then gives me a sorted array according to "Sleeps" (as in, the number of people a property can cater for). It has the correct order of ID to then output but how do I organise the original array by ID with this new array?

Sounds complicated, I hope you got that!

Cheers, RJP1

Is there a way to use sort($Array) on numbers but reverse it. So instead of 1 to 3 itll do 3 to 1 ? AKA descending order?

Can't find a function that would do unless theres a second sort function ?

Thanks

hi,

i'm trying to sort an array of associative arrays, based on one of the keys.

if the value of the key is a primitive, normal sorting occurs - this works fine.

if the value of the key is an array, i'd like to have it sorted by "groups"

here's an example:

Code: [Select]
<?php

$data[] = array('name' => 'h', 'list' => array(1,2));
$data[] = array('name' => 'g', 'list' => array(1));
$data[] = array('name' => 'a', 'list' => array(1,3));
$data[] = array('name' => 'f', 'list' => array(2));
$data[] = array('name' => 'e', 'list' => array(2,3));
$data[] = array('name' => 'b', 'list' => array(3));
$data[] = array('name' => 'c', 'list' => array(1,2,3,4));
$data[] = array('name' => 'd', 'list' => array(3,4));

function deep_sort($array, $sorton){

usort($array, function($a, $b) use($sorton) {

$a = $a[$sorton];
$b = $b[$sorton];

if(is_array($a) && is_array($b)){

// this bit is obviously flawed - only included for illustrative purposes
$a = implode('', $a);
$b = implode('', $b);

}

return ($a == $b) ? 0 : ($a > $b) ? 1 : -1;

});

return $array;

}

$sorted_by_name = deep_sort($data, 'name');

print '<pre>';

print_r($sorted_by_name);

print '</pre>';

$sorted_by_list = deep_sort($data, 'list');

print '<pre>';

print_r($sorted_by_list);

print '</pre>';

?>
the sorted_by_name bit is fine - but for sorted_by_list, what i want returned is all the array ordered as follows:

all those with "1" (or the lowest if none have "1") in it's list value first, then all those remaining that have the next highest ("2"), etc.

so right now, the returns for sort_by_list look like this:

Code: [Select]
Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [name] => g
            [list] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 1
                )

        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [name] => f
            [list] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 2
                )

        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [name] => b
            [list] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 3
                )

        )

    [3] => Array
        (
            [name] => h
            [list] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 1
                    [1] => 2
                )

        )

    [4] => Array
        (
            [name] => a
            [list] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 1
                    [1] => 3
                )

        )

    [5] => Array
        (
            [name] => e
            [list] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 2
                    [1] => 3
                )

        )

    [6] => Array
        (
            [name] => d
            [list] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 3
                    [1] => 4
                )

        )

    [7] => Array
        (
            [name] => c
            [list] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 1
                    [1] => 2
                    [2] => 3
                    [3] => 4
                )

        )

)whereas i'd like to get back:
Code: [Select]
Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [name] => g
            [list] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 1
                )

        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [name] => h
            [list] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 1
                    [1] => 2
                )

        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [name] => c
            [list] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 1
                    [1] => 2
                    [2] => 3
                    [3] => 4
                )

        )

    [3] => Array
        (
            [name] => a
            [list] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 1
                    [1] => 3
                )

        )

    [4] => Array
        (
            [name] => f
            [list] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 2
                )

        )

    [5] => Array
        (
            [name] => e
            [list] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 2
                    [1] => 3
                )

        )

    [6] => Array
        (
            [name] => b
            [list] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 3
                )

        )   

    [7] => Array
        (
            [name] => d
            [list] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 3
                    [1] => 4
                )

        )

)
TYIA for any suggestions

Hello,

Im struggling with this, probably because of my lack of fundamental knowledge of arrays.

What i want to do is:
make an array with two keys. 'id' and 'distance'.

I want to sort the results by distance, displaying the id's...

im looking at ksort() as the solution, however i don't think im implementing it properly as i dont think i have set the array up properly!!

what i have is not good...

Code: [Select]
<?php
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
//get the photographers postcode and split it into 2 pieces
$p_postcode = explode(' ',$row['address_post_code']);
//get the photographers postcode and split it into 2 pieces
$u_postcode_a = explode(' ',$u_postcode);
//run the two postcodes throught the function to determin the deistance
$final_distance = return_distance($u_postcode_a[0], $p_postcode[0]);
//start the variable so we can add to it later on
$photographers_inrange = "";
//declare this variable to help with the comma spacing too EDIT LOOK TO LINE 46
//$i2 = 1;
$photographers_inrange = array();
//if the distance is smaller or equal to the distance the photographer covers
if($final_distance <= $row['cover_distance']){
//get their id
$photographers_inrange['id'] = $row['ID'].',';
$photographers_inrange['distance'] = ''.$final_distance;
//echo $photographers_inrange;
//EDIT: this method does not work when just one result is returned. now i use substr -1.
//if this isnt the last result
//if($i++ <= $i2++){
//then add a comma for the sql statement
//$photographers_inrange .= ',';
//}
}

ksort($photographers_inrange);
foreach ($photographers_inrange as $key => $val) {
    echo "togs[" . $key . "] = " . $val . "<br/>";
}
 ?>
with $photographers_inrange being where it is, i am getting alot of empty arrays. not what i want.
i just need to know how to add to the original array, and how to then sort it.

thanks for your ongoing help!!

I've got a multidimensional array that has 2 columns.  The first column is numerical (country_id), and the second column is text (country_name), which may or may not be data that will be turned into an array. 

Looks something like this:

column 1 (index 0) = 42
column 2 (index 1) = Great Britain|England

I use a while loop to create an array of these rows, then a use a foreach loop to go through index[1] of each row.  If there is a single name for a country, it is added to a new array, but if there is more than one name for a country, then both names are added to the new array. So, for example, if we had this data:

row1
column 1 (index 0) = 12
column 2 (index 1) = Algeria

row2
column 1 (index 0) = 22
column 2 (index 1) = Ethiopia

row3
column 1 (index 0) =42
column 2 (index 1) = Great Britain|England

Then the final array would look like this:

index[0] = 12  index[1] = Algeria
index[0] = 22  index[1] = Ethiopia
index[0] = 42  index[1] = Great Britain
index[0] = 42  index[1] = England

Now I would like to sort by index[1] to get the following alphabetical order:

index[0] = 12  index[1] = Algeria
index[0] = 42  index[1] = England
index[0] = 22  index[1] = Ethiopia
index[0] = 42  index[1] = Great Britain

What do I use?  I've fooled around with sort, usort, asort ... can't figure it out.

Thanks in advance.