Sorting a multidimensional array when the numbers are strings in PHP

Question

I'm creating a ticket system in Zend Framework and I need to sort the tickets by status, only problem is that the status is a string.

This is what one entry in my array looks like:

`[1] => array(14) {
    ["ticket_id"] => string(3) "147"
    ["created_at"] => string(19) "2017-02-23 14:21:55"
    ["updated_at"] => string(19) "0000-00-00 00:00:00"
    ["deadline"] => string(19) "0000-00-00 00:00:00"
    ["scheduled_for"] => string(19) "0000-00-00 00:00:00"
    ["priority"] => string(1) "1"
    ["tracker"] => string(1) "1"
    ["status"] => string(1) "3"
    ["author"] => string(1) "12"
    ["assigned_group"] => string(0) ""
    ["uploadedFiles"] => string(0) ""
    ["uploadedFileName"] => string(0) ""
    ["title"] => string(19) "Sample problem"
  }`

Does anyone know how to sort this by status the status can be a number from 1 to 5

Edit: So far i've attempted these solutions

function natorder($a,$b) { 
   return strnatcmp ( $a['status'],  $b['status'] ); 
} 

uasort ($array, 'natorder');

from: http://board.phpbuilder.com/showthread.php?10244548-natsort()-on-a-multidimensional-array

usort($myArray, function($a, $b) {
    return $a['order'] - $b['order'];
});

from: Sort Multi-dimensional Array by Value

I'm using php 7 if anyone is wondering.

try `usort($ar, function($a, $b) { return $a['status'] <=> $b['status'];})` and then output the `$array` [EDITED] — H H, Jan 26 '18 at 15:22
@HH That did the trick somehow. thanks a lot! I tried that one before but it wouldn't work. — Alle, Jan 26 '18 at 15:26

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 26 '18 at 15:26

Try using the uasort function with the spaceshift operator:

$arr = [
    ['status' => '3'],
    ['status' => '2'],
    ['status' => '2'],
    ['status' => '1']
];

uasort($arr, function($a, $b) {
    return $a['status'] <=> $b['status'];
});

print_r($arr);

result (sandbox):

Array
(
    [3] => Array
        (
            [status] => 1
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [status] => 2
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [status] => 2
        )

    [0] => Array
        (
            [status] => 3
        )

)

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 26 '18 at 15:29

try usort($array, function($a, $b) { return $a['status'] <=> $b['status'];})

tested using:

[
 [
   "name" => "a",
   "status" => "2",
 ],
 [
   "name" => "b",
   "status" => "4",
 ],
 [
   "name" => "c",
   "status" => "1",
 ],
 [
   "name" => "d",
   "status" => "3",
 ],

]

which outputs

[
 [
   "name" => "c",
   "status" => "1",
 ],
 [
   "name" => "a",
   "status" => "2",
 ],
 [
   "name" => "d",
   "status" => "3",
 ],
 [
   "name" => "b",
   "status" => "4",
 ],

]

after you run the

usort($array, function($a, $b) { return $a['status'] <=> $b['status'];})

Sorting a multidimensional array when the numbers are strings in PHP

2 Answers2