Php sorting multidimensional array? - php

Question

How to sort the following array?
I have an multidimensional array that gets filled with total hours for each brand
$totalHours = array(
'brand' => array(),
'project' => array(),
'hours' => array()
);
The output is something like this (project is not filled):
array(3) {
["brand"]=>
array(3) {
[0]=>
string(4) "Nike"
[1]=>
string(9) "Coke Cola"
[2]=>
string(8) "Converse"
}
["project"]=>
array(3) {
[0]=>
string(6) "Bonobo"
[1]=>
string(4) "LDRU"
[2]=>
string(2) "US"
}
["hours"]=>
array(3) {
[0]=>
int(28)
[1]=>
int(106)
[2]=>
string(1) "2"
}
}
Now I would like to sort the array based on the "hours" field.
I've tried the array_multisort but it seems like I simply don't get how this function works and how to apply it to this array.
I have been able to sort an single array with just one row of values. If I apply that to this problem im sorting only the hours field, leaving the others unsorted and therefore the array is corrupted.
The "project" does actually contains a string. It always does. In this example I didn't filled it.

Answer 1

array_multisort should work:
$totalHours = array(
'brand' => array('Nike', 'Coke Cola', 'Converse'),
'project' => array(),
'hours' => array(28, 106, '2')
);
array_multisort($totalHours['hours'], $totalHours['brand']);
var_dump($totalHours);

Answer 2

That data format is not very convenient because there is no direct association between brands and hours, they even sit in different arrays! Plus, the last hour is a string, not an integer.
We're going to have to create an intermediate array to associate them and sort them. We'll then re-inject everything in the original array.
// Make sure both arrays of brands and hours and the same size
if (count($totalHours['brand']) != count($totalHours['hours'])) {
throw new Exception('Invalid data!');
}
// Make sure every hour record is an integer, not a string
$totalHours['hours'] = array_map('intval', $totalHours['hours']);
// array_combine will sort all arrays based on the sorting of the first one
array_multisort($totalHours['hours'], $totalHours['brand'], $totalHours['project']);
EDIT: Using array_multisort was #delprks 's idea originally. Here I applied it to both brand and project arrays.

Answer 3

You cant do that with a single array_* function!
if (project is not filled) always and the indexes of brand and hours are equal, then you can do:
$forsort = array_combine($totalHours["brands"],$totalHours["hours"]);
asort($forsort,SORT_NUMERIC);
$totalHours["brands"]=array_keys($forsort);
$totalHours["hours"]=array_values($forsort);
But, this is just an answer for you question, not best practise at all.