How to sort an array of associative arrays by valu

Question

Given this array:

$inventory = array(

   array("type"=>"fruit", "price"=>3.50),
   array("type"=>"milk", "price"=>2.90),
   array("type"=>"pork", "price"=>5.43),

);

I would like to sort $inventory's elements by price to get:

$inventory = array(

   array("type"=>"pork", "price"=>5.43),
   array("type"=>"fruit", "price"=>3.50),
   array("type"=>"milk", "price"=>2.90),

);

How can I do this?

Answer 1

You are right, the function you're looking for is array_multisort().

Here's an example taken straight from the manual and adapted to your case:

$price = array();
foreach ($inventory as $key => $row)
{
    $price[$key] = $row['price'];
}
array_multisort($price, SORT_DESC, $inventory);

Answer 2

From Sort an array of associative arrays by value of given key in php:

uasort (http://php.net/uasort) allows you to sort an array by your own defined function. In your case, that's simple:

$array = array(
  array('price'=>'1000.50','product'=>'test1'),
  array('price'=>'8800.50','product'=>'test2'),
  array('price'=>'200.0','product'=>'test3')
);

function cmp($a, $b) {
  return $a['price'] > $b['price'];
}

uasort($array, "cmp");

Answer 3

  <?php

$inventory = array(

   array("type"=>"fruit", "price"=>3.50),
   array("type"=>"milk", "price"=>2.90),
   array("type"=>"pork", "price"=>5.43),

);



function myfunc($a,$b){
return strnatcmp($a['price'],$b['price']);
}
$result=usort ($inventory,"myfunc");?>
<pre><?php print_r(array_reverse($inventory)); ?></pre>

the simple solution :)

the output is,

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [type] => pork
            [price] => 5.43
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [type] => fruit
            [price] => 3.5
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [type] => milk
            [price] => 2.9
        )

)

Answer 4

Was tested on 100 000 records: Time in seconds(calculated by funciton microtime). Only for unique values on sorting key positions.

Solution of function of @Josh Davis: Spended time: 1.5768740177155

Mine solution: Spended time: 0.094044923782349

Solution:

function SortByKeyValue($data, $sortKey, $sort_flags=SORT_ASC)
{
    if (empty($data) or empty($sortKey)) return $data;

    $ordered = array();
    foreach ($data as $key => $value)
        $ordered[$value[$sortKey]] = $value;

    ksort($ordered, $sort_flags);

    return array_values($ordered); *// array_values() added for identical result with multisort*
}