Php/docs/function.array-multisort
array_multisort
(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)
array_multisort — Sort multiple or multi-dimensional arrays
Description
array_multisort
( array &$array1
[, mixed $array1_sort_order
= SORT_ASC
[, mixed $array1_sort_flags
= SORT_REGULAR
]], mixed ...$rest
) : bool
array_multisort() can be used to sort several arrays at once, or a multi-dimensional array by one or more dimensions.
Associative (string) keys will be maintained, but numeric keys will be re-indexed.
Note:
If two members compare as equal, their relative order in the sorted array is undefined.
Parameters
array1
An array being sorted.
array1_sort_order
The order used to sort the previous array argument. Either
SORT_ASC
to sort ascendingly orSORT_DESC
to sort descendingly.This argument can be swapped with
array1_sort_flags
or omitted entirely, in which caseSORT_ASC
is assumed.array1_sort_flags
Sort options for the previous array argument:
Sorting type flags:
SORT_REGULAR
- compare items normally (don't change types)SORT_NUMERIC
- compare items numericallySORT_STRING
- compare items as strings-
SORT_LOCALE_STRING
- compare items as strings, based on the current locale. It uses the locale, which can be changed using setlocale() -
SORT_NATURAL
- compare items as strings using "natural ordering" like natsort() -
SORT_FLAG_CASE
- can be combined (bitwise OR) withSORT_STRING
orSORT_NATURAL
to sort strings case-insensitively
This argument can be swapped with
array1_sort_order
or omitted entirely, in which caseSORT_REGULAR
is assumed.rest
More arrays, optionally followed by sort order and flags. Only elements corresponding to equivalent elements in previous arrays are compared. In other words, the sort is lexicographical.
Return Values
Returns TRUE
on success or FALSE
on failure.
Examples
Example #1 Sorting multiple arrays
<?php$ar1 = array(10, 100, 100, 0);$ar2 = array(1, 3, 2, 4);array_multisort($ar1, $ar2);var_dump($ar1);var_dump($ar2);?>
In this example, after sorting, the first array will contain 0, 10, 100, 100. The second array will contain 4, 1, 2, 3. The entries in the second array corresponding to the identical entries in the first array (100 and 100) were sorted as well.
array(4) { [0]=> int(0) [1]=> int(10) [2]=> int(100) [3]=> int(100) } array(4) { [0]=> int(4) [1]=> int(1) [2]=> int(2) [3]=> int(3) }
Example #2 Sorting multi-dimensional array
<?php$ar = array( array("10", 11, 100, 100, "a"), array( 1, 2, "2", 3, 1) );array_multisort($ar[0], SORT_ASC, SORT_STRING, $ar[1], SORT_NUMERIC, SORT_DESC);var_dump($ar);?>
In this example, after sorting, the first array will transform to "10", 100, 100, 11, "a" (it was sorted as strings in ascending order). The second will contain 1, 3, "2", 2, 1 (sorted as numbers, in descending order).
array(2) { [0]=> array(5) { [0]=> string(2) "10" [1]=> int(100) [2]=> int(100) [3]=> int(11) [4]=> string(1) "a" } [1]=> array(5) { [0]=> int(1) [1]=> int(3) [2]=> string(1) "2" [3]=> int(2) [4]=> int(1) } }
Example #3 Sorting database results
For this example, each element in the data
array represents one row in a table. This type of dataset is typical
of database records.
Example data:
volume | edition -------+-------- 67 | 2 86 | 1 85 | 6 98 | 2 86 | 6 67 | 7
The data as an array, called data
. This would usually,
for example, be obtained by looping with mysqli_fetch_assoc().
<?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);?>
In this example, we will order by volume
descending,
edition
ascending.
We have an array of rows, but array_multisort() requires an array of columns, so we use the below code to obtain the columns, then perform the sorting.
<?php// Obtain a list of columnsforeach ($data as $key => $row) { $volume[$key] = $row['volume']; $edition[$key] = $row['edition'];}// as of PHP 5.5.0 you can use array_column() instead of the above code$volume = array_column($data, 'volume');$edition = array_column($data, 'edition');// Sort the data with volume descending, edition ascending// Add $data as the last parameter, to sort by the common keyarray_multisort($volume, SORT_DESC, $edition, SORT_ASC, $data);?>
The dataset is now sorted, and will look like this:
volume | edition -------+-------- 98 | 2 86 | 1 86 | 6 85 | 6 67 | 2 67 | 7
Example #4 Case insensitive sorting
Both SORT_STRING
and
SORT_REGULAR
are case sensitive, strings
starting with a capital letter will come before strings starting
with a lowercase letter.
To perform a case insensitive sort, force the sorting order to be determined by a lowercase copy of the original array.
<?php$array = array('Alpha', 'atomic', 'Beta', 'bank');$array_lowercase = array_map('strtolower', $array);array_multisort($array_lowercase, SORT_ASC, SORT_STRING, $array);print_r($array);?>
The above example will output:
Array ( [0] => Alpha [1] => atomic [2] => bank [3] => Beta )
See Also
- usort() - Sort an array by values using a user-defined comparison function
- The comparison of array sorting functions