Advanced Custom Fields Wordpress Repeater Field Order By Date - php

Question

I am using advanced custom fields pro to store and display information on estate sale dates. These are held in a repeater field, each row in the field has a start time, end time and a date. I need to display the information ordered by the date in the repeater field row. Currently it is ordered by date modified. I have tried several solutions but none seem to work for what I need to do.
This is what I have currently:
<?php
$latestes = new WP_Query(
array(
'post_type' => 'estate-sales',
'post_status' => 'publish',
'posts_per_page' => 10,
'orderby' => 'modified',
'order' => 'DESC'
)
);
while ( $latestes->have_posts() ) : $latestes->the_post();
echo '<li class="frontpage-esale"><a href="';
the_permalink();
echo '">';
the_title();
echo ' ';
$rowses = get_field('estate_sale_dates');
$first_row = $rowses[0];
$first_row_date = $first_row['es-date'];
$first_row_start = $first_row['es-start-time'];
$first_row_end = $first_row['es-end-time'];
echo ' - ';
if ($first_row_date) {
echo date('F j, Y',strtotime($first_row_date));
}
else {
echo 'Sale Dates TBA';
}
endwhile;
wp_reset_query();
?>
The most common answer when searching for a solution is to do something like this:
$latestes = new WP_Query(
array(
'post_type' => 'estate-sales',
'post_status' => 'publish',
'posts_per_page' => 10,
'orderby' => 'modified',
'order' => 'DESC'
)
);
while ( $latestes->have_posts() ) : $latestes->the_post();
$repeater = get_field('estate_sale_dates');
foreach( $repeater as $key => $row )
{
$column_id[ $key ] = $row['es-date'];
}
array_multisort( $column_id, SORT_ASC, $repeater );
foreach( $repeater as $row ) {
echo '<li class="frontpage-esale"><a href="';
the_permalink();
echo '">';
the_title();
echo ' ';
$rowses = get_field('estate_sale_dates');
$first_row = $rowses[0];
$first_row_date = $first_row['es-date'];
$first_row_start = $first_row['es-start-time'];
$first_row_end = $first_row['es-end-time'];
echo ' - ';
if ($first_row_date) {
echo date('F j, Y',strtotime($first_row_date));
}
else {
echo 'Sale Dates TBA';
}
}
endwhile;
wp_reset_query();
?>
However, when I try that, it lists each sale 3 times, does not order by the date at all, and if no date is entered (which needs to just default to Sale Dates TBA) it throws an error.
Any help greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Note, that your integration isn't complete, signaled by having two get_field('estate_sale_dates');, and the name $first_row being out of place when iterating all of them. Without the sort, you're basically doing
$repeater = get_field( 'estate_sale_dates' );
...
foreach ( $repeater => $row_that_isnt_used )
{
$rowses = get_field( 'estate_sale_dates' );
$first_row = $rowses[0];
}
I think something like this is what you're after:
<?php
while ( $latestes->have_posts() ) {
$latestes->the_post();
echo '<li class="frontpage-esale"><a href="';
the_permalink();
echo '">';
the_title();
echo '</a> ';
if ( ! count( $sale_dates = get_field('estate_sale_dates') ) )
echo '<span>Sale Dates TBA</span>';
else
{
// $order = array_column( $sale_dates, 'es-date' ): (php 5.5+)
foreach( $sale_dates as $ignore => $row )
$order[] = $row['es-date'];
array_multisort( $order, SORT_ASC, $sale_dates );
echo "<ul>";
foreach( $sale_dates as $row ) {
$date = $row['es-date'];
$start = $row['es-start-time'];
$end = $row['es-end-time'];
echo "<li>" . date('F j, Y',strtotime($row_date)) . " $start-$end</li>";
}
echo "</ul>";
}
echo "</li>";
}

Answer 2

I have the same problem with a calendar. There is no solution to do this in the right way with a repater field. The best way to do this, is to use an custom field in an hidden post type and a relation field.
Because any PHP solution is inperformant.
Make a Custom Post Type "Sales Dates" an in this a custom field "date" and a second "Post Relation".
Then select from Post Type "Sales Dates" all Posts order by meta key "dates" with the relation field you get the data from the not hidden post type.