PHP Sort a multidimensional array by element containing date

Question

I have an array such as:

Array
(
[0] => Array
    (
        [id] => 2
        [type] => comment
        [text] => hey
        [datetime] => 2010-05-15 11:29:45
    )

[1] => Array
    (
        [id] => 3
        [type] => status
        [text] => oi
        [datetime] => 2010-05-26 15:59:53
    )

[2] => Array
    (
        [id] => 4
        [type] => status
        [text] => yeww
        [datetime] => 2010-05-26 16:04:24
    )

)

Can anyone suggest a way to sort/order this based on the datetime element?

Answer 1

Use usort() and a custom comparison function:

function date_compare($a, $b)
{
    $t1 = strtotime($a['datetime']);
    $t2 = strtotime($b['datetime']);
    return $t1 - $t2;
}    
usort($array, 'date_compare');

---

EDIT: Your data is organized in an array of arrays. To better distinguish those, let's call the inner arrays (data) records, so that your data really is an array of records.

usort will pass two of these records to the given comparison function date_compare() at a a time. date_compare then extracts the "datetime" field of each record as a UNIX timestamp (an integer), and returns the difference, so that the result will be 0 if both dates are equal, a positive number if the first one ($a) is larger or a negative value if the second argument ($b) is larger. usort() uses this information to sort the array.

Answer 2

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.array-multisort.php see third example:

<?php

$data[] = array('volume' => 67, 'edition' => 2);
$data[] = array('volume' => 86, 'edition' => 1);
$data[] = array('volume' => 85, 'edition' => 6);
$data[] = array('volume' => 98, 'edition' => 2);
$data[] = array('volume' => 86, 'edition' => 6);
$data[] = array('volume' => 67, 'edition' => 7);

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

array_multisort($volume, SORT_DESC, $edition, SORT_ASC, $data);

?>

fyi, using a unix (seconds from 1970) or mysql timestamp (YmdHis - 20100526014500) would be be easier for the parser but i think in your case it makes no difference.