Sorting SimpleXML

[lj-]

Hello,

 

Hope somebody can help me.

I have an XML file that is generated by active directory that dumps everything required for a telephone directory.

I currently present this using XSL but would like to move towards PHP.

 

I have some rudimentary code and it's working fine but I'd like to be able to sort by various values, such as First Name or telephone number.

 

My XML format looks like this:

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<telephonelist>
   <employee>
      <firstname>Jimmy</firstname>
      <lastname>Jimmerson</lastname>
      <email>[email protected]</email>
      <extensionnum>956</extensionnum>
      <jobtitle>Security Officer</jobtitle>
      <department>Security</department>
   </employee>
   <employee>
      <firstname>David</firstname>
      <lastname>Davidson</lastname>
      <email>[email protected]</email>
      <extensionnum>968</extensionnum>
      <jobtitle>Manager</jobtitle>
      <department>Management</department>
   </employee>

 

Any my current code looks like this:

 

<?
$myStaffMembers = new SimpleXMLElement("includes/telephonelist.xml", null, true);

echo <<<EOF
<table width="95%" border="0">
  <tr>                
<th><b>First Name</b></th>                
<th><b>Last Name</b></th>                
<th><b>Telephone Number</b></th>                
<th><b>Position</b></th>                       
  </tr>
EOF;

foreach($myStaffMembers as $myStaffMember) 
{
echo "      
  <tr>                
<td>{$myStaffMember->firstname}</td>                
<td>{$myStaffMember->lastname}</td>                
<td>{$myStaffMember->extensionnum}</td>                
<td>{$myStaffMember->jobtitle}</td>                       
  </tr>";
}
?>

 

Appreciate any help anybody could give.

 

Thanks,

LJ

[silkfire]

In XSL:

 

http://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t169533-sort-xml-and-write-to-xml.html

[lj-]

Hi silkfire,

 

Thank you for your response but as I mentioned, I know how to do this in XSL - I currently do it this way.

I'd like to switch to sorting within PHP so I only have to maintain one header/footer and just include() the XML (or any other) content in the middle.

 

Thanks,

[xyph]

Since you don't need the values to remain in a object, I like to dump the values to array and sort using that.

 

Solution for only sorting by a single value:

<?php 

$xml_string = '<?xml version="1.0"?>
<telephonelist>
   <employee>
      <firstname>Jimmy</firstname>
      <lastname>Jimmerson</lastname>
      <email>[email protected]</email>
      <extensionnum>956</extensionnum>
      <jobtitle>Security Officer</jobtitle>
      <department>Security</department>
   </employee>
   <employee>
      <firstname>David</firstname>
      <lastname>Davidson</lastname>
      <email>[email protected]</email>
      <extensionnum>968</extensionnum>
      <jobtitle>Manager</jobtitle>
      <department>Management</department>
   </employee>
</telephonelist>';

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement( $xml_string );
$data = array();

$key = 0;
foreach( $xml as $group ) { // Loop through <employee>s
foreach( $group as $name => $entry ) // Loop through each tag in <employee>
	$data[$key][$name] = (string) $entry; // Record to array
$key++;
}

usort( $data, 'sortBy' );

print_r( $data );

function sortBy($a,$b) {
return $a['lastname'] > $b['lastname'];
}

?>

 

For multiple values, use array_multisort or a function similar to this: http://ca.php.net/manual/en/function.usort.php#105764

[lj-]

Morning xyph,

 

That is exactly what I was looking for - why didn't I think of stuffing it all in an array? 

 

Thanks very much for your help.