php how to sort multidimensional array by sepcifi value order

Question

I have an array that looks like this:

[
  1 => [
    'title' => 'a title',
    'status' => 'active'
  ],
  2 => [
    'title' => 'a title 2',
    'status' => 'disabled'
  ],
  1 => [
    'title' => 'a title 3',
    'status' => 'not active'
  ]
]

My goal is to group/sort them by status order 1. active 2. not active 3. disabled

So basically like so:

[
  1 => [
    'title' => 'a title',
    'status' => 'active'
  ],
  2 => [
    'title' => 'a title 3',
    'status' => 'not active'
  ]
  3 => [
    'title' => 'a title 2',
    'status' => 'disabled'
  ]
]

I know I'll probably need to write a loop and execute some array functions but my concern is how can I determine the order of the statuses, which is prio over the other.

That's one of the reasons why people use numeric statuses, to make it easy to sort. Other than that, something along the lines of `usort()` with a custom comparison function to handle the strings? — droopsnoot, Apr 02 '20 at 12:01
Does this answer your question? [How can I sort arrays and data in PHP?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17364127/how-can-i-sort-arrays-and-data-in-php) — CBroe, Apr 02 '20 at 12:05
The mentioned duplicate explains how to work with `usort` in general. To simply “translate” your status texts into an “order”, I would recommend to just use `array_search`. Put your three text values into an array, in the correct order - and then “search” for the value of the items you are comparing in your usort callback function in there. That will return the corresponding index 0, 1 or 2, and that is a value you can easily use for > / < / == comparisons. — CBroe, Apr 02 '20 at 12:07

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 02 '20 at 12:24

You will need to use usort. In order to save some time i would assing a value to each status option:

    $mappings = [
        'active' => 0,
        'not active' => 1,
        'disabled' => 2
    ];
    $toSort = [
        1 => [
            'title' => 'a title',
            'status' => 'active'
        ],
        2 => [
            'title' => 'a title 2',
            'status' => 'disabled'
        ],
        3 => [
            'title' => 'a title 3',
            'status' => 'not active'
        ]
    ];
    usort($toSort, static function (array $x, array $y) use ($mappings) {
       return $mappings[$x['status']] - $mappings[$y['status']];
    });

By using a mapping you can simple subtract the values. If the value y comes after the value x, the result will be negative, thus positioning it after x.

If you use php 7.4, the usort code can even be a oneliner:

usort($toSort, static fn(array $x, array $y) => $mappings[$x['status']] - $mappings[$y['status']];);

php how to sort multidimensional array by sepcifi value order

1 Answers1