Sorting A Multi Dimensional Array (Understanding Usort and MultiSort)

Question

I have an array that is multiple database tables merged together into an array of the information that is needed. I want to sort this information alphabetically by name and then by id if it is the same name.

I viewed all of the following topics and was not able to produce a working result.

MY ARRAY as sudo dump

array(3){ 
    [0] => array(3){ 
        ['id'] => "1",  
        ['name'] => "Slippery Sasha", 
        ['type'] => "Electric Eel"
    }, 
    [1] => array(3){ 
        ['id'] => "2",  
        ['name'] => "Viscious Vipers", 
        ['type'] => "Snake"
    },
    [2] => array(3){ 
        ['id'] => "3",  
        ['name'] => "Finnic Fox", 
        ['type'] => "Rabid Fox"
    }, 
}

Code Attempt

// Sort
        $sortByTypes = array('name', 'id', 'type');
        usort($returnArray, function($a, $b) use($sortByTypes){
            foreach($sortByTypes as $field){
                $sort = strnatcasecmp($a[$field], $a[$field]);
                if($sort !== 0){
                    break;
                }
            }
            return $sort;
        });

MY INTENDED DUMP

  array(3){ 
        [0] => array(3){ 
            ['id'] => "3",  
            ['name'] => "Finnic Fox", 
            ['type'] => "Rabid Fox"
        }, 
        [1] => array(3){ 
            ['id'] => "1",  
            ['name'] => "Slippery Sasha", 
            ['type'] => "Electric Eel"
        }, 
        [2] => array(3){ 
            ['id'] => "2",  
            ['name'] => "Viscious Vipers", 
            ['type'] => "Snake"
        },

    }

BONUS IF you can explain how it works and what it is doing to sort the array giving me a better understanding of the feature that would be awesome!

Narendrasingh Sisodia · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-21T13:58:06.430

1

You can use usort like as

usort($arr,function($a,$b){
    $c = strcasecmp($a['name'], $b['name']);
    $c .= $a['id'] - $b['id'];
    return $c;
});
print_r($arr);

Demo

edited Sep 21 '15 at 13:58

answered Sep 21 '15 at 13:46

Narendrasingh Sisodia

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This still shows that the arrays are sorted by id first and not by the name. – David J. Davis Sep 21 '15 at 13:50
What is your expected output. And I think its working as been expected it to be – Narendrasingh Sisodia Sep 21 '15 at 13:51
I updated my question to answer the expected output. But basically abc order by the name column in the array. But if the name is the same as another name then sort by id. – David J. Davis Sep 21 '15 at 13:57
Updated my answer too instead of `uasort` use `usort` simply. `uasort` is used in order to preserve your keys too if you don't want to then simply use `usort` – Narendrasingh Sisodia Sep 21 '15 at 13:58
Seems to be working now. Thanks for your help. Can you explain a little about why it works or what its doing in $c? – David J. Davis Sep 21 '15 at 14:04
The first one will check for `name` and the next one for `id` – Narendrasingh Sisodia Sep 21 '15 at 14:07
Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/90234/discussion-between-uchiha-and-david-j-davis). – Narendrasingh Sisodia Sep 21 '15 at 14:16

Sorting A Multi Dimensional Array (Understanding Usort and MultiSort)

1 Answers1