Question

I have a multidimensional array or arrays which I also use in my configuration file. The file is also manually edited so I want some of the keys to have fixed position. The code reads configuration file with this array, modifies, insert keys etc and then saves it back. On save I sort the keys but now I found that it is not good enough.

Is there any way to have

• the key 'full_name' always as the first key
• the key 'version' as second one
• and the rest of the keys to be sorted alphabetically?

Sample of the array….

array (
  'skroob' => 
  array (
    'ssh' => 'skroob',
    'codebase_path' => '/srv/www/htdocs/imacs/radek/4.0.1',
    'ssh_status' => 'ok',
    'version' => '4.0.1',
    'ssh_last_access' => '2012-Feb-17 10:07:26',
    'edu_url' => 'https://testing/imacs/radek/4.0.1',
    'full_name' => 'skroob 4.0.1',
  ),
  'testing' => 
  array (
    'full_name' => 'My beautiful testing server (trunk)',
    'version' => 'trunk',
    'ssh' => 'testing',
    'codebase_path' => '/srv/www/htdocs/imacs/radek/trunk',
    'ssh_last_access' => '2012-Feb-17 10:07:26',
    'ssh_status' => 'ok',
  ),
)

Answer 1

Here’s one way. It sorts the array alphabetically, by key. Then it reverses the array and unsets the full_name and version keys. Then it adds those keys again, so they get placed at the end of the array. Lastly, it reverses the array again. Kinda hacky but I’m not sure there’s a much better way to do what you’re asking.

ksort($arr['skroob']);

$arr['skroob'] = array_reverse($arr['skroob']);

$version = $arr['skroob']['version'];
$full_name = $arr['skroob']['full_name'];

unset($arr['skroob']['full_name'], $arr['skroob']['version']);

$arr['skroob']['version'] = $version;
$arr['skroob']['full_name'] = $full_name;

$arr['skroob'] = array_reverse($arr['skroob']);

Another solution is to use uksort and write a small callback function. That would probably look a bit more professional.