Member Avatar for benjaminFowl87

Hi there, i'm currently having trouble re-sorting an array based on a letter that a user has submitted.

this is the associative array I want to sort.

$people = array(
    0 => array(

        'id' => 12345,
        'name' => 'abi',
    ),

    1 => array(

        'id' => 12346,
        'name' => 'ben',
    ),

    2 => array(
        'id' => 12347,
        'name' => 'carly',
    )
);

I've been trying for quite sometime now but to no avail

this is the code i have created so far.

function sort_array($array,$keyID,$letter)
{
    $match = array();
    $other = array();
    $flag = false;
    
    foreach ($array as $key => $value)
    {
        //print $key; print 0 1 2
        //print $value; prints array array array
        //
        //loop through each value array
        foreach($value as $key2 => $value2)
        {
            //print $value; will print array 6 times
            //print $key2; will print id name 3 times
            //print $value2; will print 12345abi 12346ben 12347carly ,the values of each key

            if($key2 == $keyID)
            {
                //print $key; prints 0 1 2
                //print $value2; prints abi ben carly

                if($letter == $value2[0])
                {
                    $flag = true;
                }

                if($flag == true)
                {
                    $match[$key] = $value2;
                }
                else
                {
                    $other[$key] = $value2;
                }

                $sortable[$key] = array_merge($match,$other);
            }

        }
    }

    foreach ($sortable as $key => $value)
    {
        $new_array[$key] = $array[$key];
    }

    print_r($new_array);

}

//call function
sort_array($people,'name','c');

any help would be apreciated

  • 2 Contributors
  • 4 Replies
  • 270 Views
  • 21 Hours Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by benjaminFowl87
Member Avatar for benjaminFowl87

thanks chris, I shall take a look

Member Avatar for benjaminFowl87

I'm still strugling with this, the multi sort function provided only sorts arrays by ASC, DESC, STRING etc,

I would like to sort the array starting from a specified letter such as c

this is what i currently have

$people = array(
    0 => array(
        'id' => 12345,
        'name' => 'Joe',

    ),
    1 => array(
        'id' => 12346,
        'name' => 'Adam',

    ),
    2 => array(
        'id' => 12347,
        'name' => 'Amy',
    )
);

// Obtain a list of columns
foreach ($people as $key => $row) 
{
    $name[$key]  = $row['name'];
}

array_multisort($name, SORT_DESC, $people);

print_r($people);

With my previous code i was simply adding all the values that didn't start with the letter b for example to the end of an array thus giving me a sorted by letter array.

i cant seem to achieve this with an associative array as when i merge them the array comes out in ASC order again.

Member Avatar for benjaminFowl87

I've solved the problem, heres the final code to sort an associative array by its first letter. Hope it helps anyone hoping to achieve something similar.

class sortArray 
{
	/* Will get the first letter of each value and compare it
	   to the user input */
	public function getFirstChar($char)
	{
		return substr($char, 0,1);
	}
	
	/* Verify the user input and convert it */
	public function verifyVariable($var)
	{
		if(isset($var) && !is_numeric($var))
		{
			$string = strtoupper($var);
		}
		else
		{
			$string = '';
		}
		
		return $string;
	}
	
	public function sort_array($array,$keyID,$letter)
	{
		$new = array();
		$sortable = array();
		$match = array();
		$other = array();
		$letter = $this->verifyVariable($letter);
		$flag = false;
		
		foreach ($array as $key => $value) 
		{
			foreach ($value as $key2 => $value2)
			{
				if($key2 == $keyID)
				{
					if($letter == $this->verifyVariable($this->getFirstChar($value2)))
					{
						$flag = true;
					}
					
					if($flag == true)
					{
						$match[$key] = $value2;
					}
					else
					{
						$other[$key] = $value2;
					}
					
					$sortable = $match + $other;
				}
			}	
		}
		
		foreach ($sortable as $key => $value) 
		{
			$new[$key] = $array[$key];
		}
		
		return $new;
	}
}
Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.