Leaderboard

try using a custom sort function # # Sort attendees on course, name # usort($attendees, function($a, $b) { $x = $a['course']<=>$b['course']; if ($x == 0) return $a['name']<=>$b['name']; return $x; }); # # Add sorted attendees to result array # $result = array(); foreach ($attendees as $attendee): $result[$attendee['course']][] = $attendee; endforeach; # # View result # echo '<pre>' . print_r($result, 1) . '</pre>'; P.S. You didn't say in what order you want them. If your aim is merely to get the courses in order then you could use ksort($result) (instead of your current sort() )to order the keys.