sort a multidimensional array using array_multisort

Question

I have this array

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [brand] => blah blah
            [location] => blah blah
            [address] =>         


        

Answer 1

You need to extract all the distances first, then pass both the distance and the data to the function. As shown in example 3 in the array_multisort documentation.

foreach ($data as $key => $row) {
    $distance[$key] = $row['distance'];
}

array_multisort($distance, SORT_ASC, $data);

This assumes you want the shortest distances first, otherwise change the SORT_ASC to SORT_DESC

Answer 2

If you want to avoid the looping you can use the array_column function to achieve your target. For Example,

You want to sort below array with distance sort

$arr = array( 
  0 => array( 'lat' => 34, 'distance' => 332.08 ),
  1 => array( 'lat' => 34, 'distance' => 5 ),
  2 => array( 'lat' => 34, 'distance' => 34 )
);

Using below single line your array will be sort by distance

array_multisort( array_column( $arr, 'distance' ), SORT_ASC, SORT_NUMERIC, $arr );

Now, $arr contain with sorted array by distance

Answer 3

Use can use usort;

function cmpDistance($a, $b) {
    return ($a['distance'] - $b['distance']);
}

usort($array, "cmpDistance");

Answer 4

This code helps to sort the multidimensional array using array_multisort()

  $param_dt = array();
  foreach ($data_set as $key => $row) {
     if(isset($row['params']['priority']))
     {
       $param_dt[$key] = $row['params']['priority'];
     }
     else
     {
        $param_dt[$key] = -2; // if priority key is not set for this array - it first out
     }
    }

  array_multisort($param_dt, SORT_ASC,SORT_NUMERIC, $data_set); 

Now $data_set has the sorted list of elements.