Sorting MultiDimension Array

[landysaccount]

Hello.

 

Last weekend I requested help on how to sort a multidimension array; I was requested to look into array_multisort() but, after reading about this function I'm still not able to get the results I need.

 

I currently have the following array that gets populated in a for loop:

 

$data[$num_records]['cust_id']    = $row["eq_cust_id"];

$data[$num_records]['cust_name']  = $customer_name;

$data[$num_records]['cust_mac']  = $row["eq_mac_address"];

$data[$num_records]['cust_ip']    = $cust_ip;

$num_records++;

 

array_multisort( $data[]['cust_ip'], SORT_NUMERIC);

 

After the loop I would like to be able to sort the array by 'cust_name' or 'cust_ip' but, can't figure out how. Please help.

 

Thanks in advanced.

[Psycho]

I wouldn't use array_multisort() for this because you would have to first "transform" the array into a different format (see Example#3). A better option, in my opinion, would be to use usort() to define your own sorting function.

 

function sortByName($a, $b)
{
    return strcasecmp($a['cust_name'], $b['cust_name']);
}

usort($data, "sortByName");
//Records will now be sorted based on name

 

You can also get fancier to sort by two or more columns, i.e. the the primary value is equal then do a secondary (or more) sort on another column.

 

function sortByNameIP($a, $b)
{
    if (strcasecmp($a['cust_name'], $b['cust_name'])==0)
    {
        //If name is same, then sort on ip
        return strcasecmp($a['cust_ip'], $b['cust_ip']);
    }
    return strcasecmp($a['cust_name'], $b['cust_name']);
}

usort($data, "sortByNameIP");
//Records will now be sorted based on name, then IP

 

Note: I have not tested any of this. It may work as expected, not sure. It's late and I'm not in the mood for creating test data. But the idea is sound.