sorting part of a multidimensional array

Question

I have an multi dimensional array:

$array[0] = array ( name => "Bob",
    position => "Chair",
    email => "bob@foo.bar"
);
$array[1] = array ( name => "Al",
    position => "",
    email => "al@foo.bar"
);
//etc..

I want to sort it so that those whose position != "" are first, then the rest alphabetically by name... I'm not very familiar w/ sorting multidimensional arrays, could someone help me? Thanks!

And in what order do you want the ones with no position to be in? For example, alphabetical by email/name or in their original order? — salathe, Jul 21 '10 at 19:55
possible duplicate of [How do I sort a multi-dimensional array by value?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3281841/how-do-i-sort-a-multi-dimensional-array-by-value) — Wrikken, Jul 21 '10 at 19:58

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 07 '14 at 17:39

4

<?php  
$array[0] = array ( name => "Bob", position => "Chair", email => "bob@foo.bar");  
$array[1] = array ( name => "Al", position => "",email => "al@foo.bar");  
print_r($array);  

$idxPos = array();  
for ($i=0;$i<count($array);$i++)
{  
    $idxPos[$i] = $array[$i]["position"]; 
}  
arsort($idxPos);  

$arrayNew = array();  
$sortedKeys = array_keys($idxPos);  
for($p=0;$p<count($idxPos);$p++)
{
$arrayNew[] = $array[$sortedKeys[$p]];
}
$array = $arrayNew;  

print_r("<br />");  
print_r($array);  
?>

edited Feb 07 '14 at 17:39

Wistar

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answered Jul 21 '10 at 20:15

Irwin

12,551
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backticks are generally best for `$small_bits`, whereas indenting with 4 spaces is best for code blocks. Edited to make things look prettier :) – Matchu Jul 21 '10 at 20:30

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 21 '10 at 20:08

The usort function is probably your best bet for this:

usort($array, function($a, $b) {
    if (empty($a['position']) && !empty($b['position'])) {
        return 1; 
    }   
    else if (!empty($a['position']) && empty($b['position'])) {
        return -1;
    }   
    else {
        return strcmp($a['name'], $b['name']);
    }   
});

Anonymous functions were introduced in PHP 5.3.0. If you're using an earlier version you can just define a regular function instead:

function cmp($a, $b) {
    if (empty($a['position']) && !empty($b['position'])) {
        return 1; 
    }   
    else if (!empty($a['position']) && empty($b['position'])) {
        return -1;
    }   
    else {
        return strcmp($a['name'], $b['name']);
    }   
}

usort($array, 'cmp');

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 21 '10 at 19:55

0

You'll probably want to try usort so you can use a custom sorting function. In the sorting function you can check a["position"] vs b["position"] in the way you describe.

answered Jul 21 '10 at 19:55

funwhilelost

1,990
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sorting part of a multidimensional array

3 Answers3