Question

I have been playing with the array_multisort function but I am struggling to get it to work with the array that I have.

Here is a var dump of the multi dimensional array I am trying to sort:

array(2) { 
[1]=> array(6) { 
    ["totalprice"]=> float(103.32)
    ["itemsprice"]=> float(83.33) 
    ["deliveryprice"]=> float(19.99)
    ["qualityscore"]=> int(100)
    ["reliabilityscore"]=> int(100)
    ["itemtemplates"]=> array(4) {
         [1]=> array(3) { 
            ["price"]=> float(374)
            ["qty"]=> int(200)
            ["name"]=> string(17) "English A2 Poster"
        }
        [3]=> array(3) { 
            ["price"]=> float(374)
            ["qty"]=> int(500)
            ["name"]=> NULL
        }
        [6]=> array(3) {
            ["price"]=> float(83.333333333333)
            ["qty"]=> int(100)
            ["name"]=> string(16) "French A3 Poster"
        }
        [5]=> array(3) {
            ["price"]=> float(83.333333333333)
            ["qty"]=> int(5000) ["name"]=> NULL
        }
    }
}
[2]=> array(6) { 
    ["totalprice"]=> float(103.32)
    ["itemsprice"]=> float(83.33) 
    ["deliveryprice"]=> float(19.99)
    ["qualityscore"]=> int(80)
    ["reliabilityscore"]=> int(100)
    ["itemtemplates"]=> array(4) {
         [1]=> array(3) { 
            ["price"]=> float(374)
            ["qty"]=> int(200)
            ["name"]=> string(17) "English A2 Poster"
        }
        [3]=> array(3) { 
            ["price"]=> float(374)
            ["qty"]=> int(500)
            ["name"]=> NULL
        }
        [6]=> array(3) {
            ["price"]=> float(83.333333333333)
            ["qty"]=> int(100)
            ["name"]=> string(16) "French A3 Poster"
        }
        [5]=> array(3) {
            ["price"]=> float(83.333333333333)
            ["qty"]=> int(5000) ["name"]=> NULL
        }
    }
}
[3]=> array(6) { 
    ["totalprice"]=> float(83.32)
    ["itemsprice"]=> float(63.33) 
    ["deliveryprice"]=> float(19.99)
    ["qualityscore"]=> int(60)
    ["reliabilityscore"]=> int(40)
    ["itemtemplates"]=> array(4) {
         [1]=> array(3) { 
            ["price"]=> float(374)
            ["qty"]=> int(200)
            ["name"]=> string(17) "English A2 Poster"
        }
        [3]=> array(3) { 
            ["price"]=> float(374)
            ["qty"]=> int(500)
            ["name"]=> NULL
        }
        [6]=> array(3) {
            ["price"]=> float(83.333333333333)
            ["qty"]=> int(100)
            ["name"]=> string(16) "French A3 Poster"
        }
        [5]=> array(3) {
            ["price"]=> float(83.333333333333)
            ["qty"]=> int(5000) ["name"]=> NULL
        }
    }
}

}

I need to sort by the total price ASC and then by the quality score DESC.

I’ve tried the following:

$sorted = array_multisort($array['totalprice'], SORT_ASC, SORT_NUMERIC,
    $array['qualityscore'], SORT_NUMERIC, SORT_DESC);

Unfortunately that doesn’t work. Is anyone a bit more savvy with this function and may know where i’m going wrong? or if there is a simple alternative to this function?

Thanks in Advance!

Answer 1

Try following code:

$totalprices = array();
$qualityscores = array();
foreach ($array as $value) {
    $totalprices[] = $value['totalprice'];
    $qualityscores[] = $value['qualityscore'];
}

array_multisort($totalprices, SORT_ASC, $qualityscores, SORT_DESC, $array);

RTM http://php.net/manual/en/function.array-multisort.php 🙂