Question

Right now my select box is being created from a virtualfield in my Players class to be used in an add.ctp view for my Statistics model. The select box is currently being sorted by the id. I would rather it sort by the Player.last_name.

Here is my Model:

class Player extends AppModel {

    public $name = 'Player';
    public $virtualFields = array(
    'name' => "TRIM(CONCAT(Player.last_name, ', ', Player.first_name))"
    );
    public $displayField = 'name';

    var $hasMany = array(
         'Statistic' => array(
             'className'     => 'Statistic',
             'foreignKey'    => 'player_id',
             'dependent'=> true
         )
     );  

}

this is what I’m using in my add.ctp view:

 echo $this->Form->input('player_id');

This is the current output (ordered by the player_id):

<select name="data[Statistic][player_id]" id="StatisticPlayerId">
    <option value="335">Smith, Jordan</option>
    <option value="336">Marall, Jabari</option>
    <option value="337">Rusell, Mike</option>
    <option value="338">Johnson, Calvin</option>
    <option value="339">Thompson, Daniel</option>
    <option value="340">Dennis, Jacob</option>
</select>

This is the desired output (ordered by the last name):

<select name="data[Statistic][player_id]" id="StatisticPlayerId">
    <option value="340">Dennis, Jacob</option>
    <option value="338">Johnson, Calvin</option>
    <option value="336">Marall, Jabari</option>
    <option value="337">Rusell, Mike</option>
    <option value="335">Smith, Jordan</option>
    <option value="339">Thompson, Daniel</option>
</select>

Answer 1

Yes, you can order by virtual fields, but your virtual fields is 'name' and not 'last_name'. Try $order = array('Player.name');