How to sort an array of associative arrays by value of a given key in PHP?

Question

Given this array:

$inventory = array(

   array(\"type\"=>\"fruit\", \"price\"=>3.50),
   array(\"type\"=>\"milk\", \"price\"=>2.90),
   array(\"         


        

Answer 1

$arr1 = array(

    array('id'=>1,'name'=>'aA','cat'=>'cc'),
    array('id'=>2,'name'=>'aa','cat'=>'dd'),
    array('id'=>3,'name'=>'bb','cat'=>'cc'),
    array('id'=>4,'name'=>'bb','cat'=>'dd')
);

$result1 = array_msort($arr1, array('name'=>SORT_DESC);

$result2 = array_msort($arr1, array('cat'=>SORT_ASC);

$result3 = array_msort($arr1, array('name'=>SORT_DESC, 'cat'=>SORT_ASC));


function array_msort($array, $cols)
{
    $colarr = array();
    foreach ($cols as $col => $order) {
    $colarr[$col] = array();
    foreach ($array as $k => $row) { $colarr[$col]['_'.$k] = strtolower($row[$col]); }
}

$eval = 'array_multisort(';

foreach ($cols as $col => $order) {
    $eval .= '$colarr[\''.$col.'\'],'.$order.',';
}

$eval = substr($eval,0,-1).');';
eval($eval);
$ret = array();
foreach ($colarr as $col => $arr) {
    foreach ($arr as $k => $v) {
        $k = substr($k,1);
        if (!isset($ret[$k])) $ret[$k] = $array[$k];
        $ret[$k][$col] = $array[$k][$col];
    }
}
return $ret;


}