PHP sort an array of arrays according to an index in the arrays

Question

Let's say you have an array that looks like this:

$myArray []= array('firstname' => 'John' , 'lastname'=> 'Johnson');

$myArray []= array('firstname' => 'Adam' , 'lastname'=> 'Tyson');

$myArray []= array('firstname' => 'Mike' , 'lastname'=> 'Robinson');

$myArray []= array('firstname' => 'David' , 'lastname'=> 'Jackson');

How can you sort $myArray according to the lastname?

Possible Duplicate: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1905617/how-do-i-sort-multidimension-array-in-php — , Sep 15 '11 at 04:22
and another duplicate: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1795244/sorting-a-multidimensional-array-in-php/1795268#1795268 — , Sep 15 '11 at 04:23

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 15 '11 at 04:30

This also works

<?php
    $myArray []= array('firstname' => 'John' , 'lastname'=> 'Johnson');
    $myArray []= array('firstname' => 'Adam' , 'lastname'=> 'Tyson');
    $myArray []= array('firstname' => 'Mike' , 'lastname'=> 'Robinson');
    $myArray []= array('firstname' => 'David' , 'lastname'=> 'Jackson');

    foreach ($myArray as $array) {
        $lastnames[] = $array['lastname'];
    }

    array_multisort($lastnames,SORT_STRING,$myArray);
    echo '<pre>',print_r($myArray,1),'</pre>';

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 14 '13 at 19:02

3

I got it to work using usort() and a closure.

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

answered Jun 14 '13 at 19:02

Michael J. Calkins

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score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 15 '11 at 04:25

This should do what you need:

<?php
function cmp($a, $b) {
    return strcasecmp($a['lastname'], $b['lastname']);
}

$myArray[] = array('firstname' => 'John', 'lastname'=> 'Johnson');
$myArray[] = array('firstname' => 'Adam', 'lastname'=> 'Tyson');
$myArray[] = array('firstname' => 'Mike', 'lastname'=> 'Robinson');
$myArray[] = array('firstname' => 'David', 'lastname'=> 'Jackson');

uasort($myArray, 'cmp');

I'm using uasort(), one of the custom sort function, to the sorting.

PHP sort an array of arrays according to an index in the arrays

3 Answers3

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