How to make these code shorter? - php

Question

$categories = PostCategoryQuery::create()->find();
$categories_array = [];
foreach ($categories as $k => $category):
$posts_count = PostQuery::create()->filterByPostCategory($category)->count();
$categories_array[$k]['category'] = $category->getName();
$categories_array[$k]['count'] = $posts_count;
endforeach;
uasort($categories_array, "sortByCount");
function sortByCount($a, $b) {
return $a['count'] > $b['count'] ? -1 : 1;
}
I want to get 'categories' array order by numbers of its related posts, I think there must be a way to make my code shorter, hoping get some suggestions, thanks~

Answer 1

If in your ORM you could use a simple query with group by you simply could perform a select like
select category, count(*)
from post_category
inner join post on post_category.category_id = post.category_id
group by category
order by count(*)
and then your code will be reduced to the query..

Answer 2

I don't know your model exactly, but I would recommend something like that:
$categories_array = PostQuery::create('pq')
->joinPostCategory('pc')
->withColumn('COUNT(pq.id)', 'count')
->groupBy('pc.id')
->select(array('pc.name', 'count'))
->orderBy('count')
->find();
// Should return PropelArrayCollection(
// array('pc.name' => 'category1', 'count' => 123),
// array('pc.name' => 'category2', 'count' => 234)
// )
This way you avoid object hydrating as you do only select the columns that you need.