sort array contents

dagon

I havan array like this

$author =array(
"Bruno Aliotta",
"Steve Mitchell",
"Derrick M. Hussey")(

and i want to sort it alphabetical by surname

$author =array(
"Aliotta Bruno",
"Hussey Derrick M.",
"Mitchell Steve")(

sarahk

You are asking it to sort and restructure the strings?!

howsabout:

$author = array();
$author['Aliotta'] = 'Bruno';
$author['Mitchell'] = 'Steve';
$author['Hussey'] = 'Derrick M.';

then you can use ksort() to sort by surname and asort to sort by firstname.

to output you can

foreach($authors as $surname => firstname)
{
  echo $firstname . ' ' . $surname;
}

dagon

I was thinking along the lines of

 function sort_a($author){
$author_s =	split(" ", $author);
$count =count($author_s);
$author[0] = $author_s[$count-1];
for($i = 0; $i < $count-1; $i++) {
$author[$i+1] = $author[$i];}
$author = array_merge($author[0], $author[1], $author[2], $author[3], $author[4], $author[5]); 
		}
	}

$author =array_walk($author,sort_a);

but that does not work

sarahk

what are you trying to do? Can you explain the problem you are trying to solve.

Does your initial array come from a database?

I'm assuming this is for the biographies page?

dagon

data not from database decided against it. The problem is i want the output alphabetical by surname not first name with out manually rewritting the author array.

after i get the author array sorted i use
array_multisort($author, $title, $filename, $description);

to sort the other arrays and then just foreach loop through them echoing to screen.

sarahk

this will give you the $author array in a better format, assuming you have only one author per surname

function breakIt($aList)
{ 
  $output = array();
  foreach($aList as $val)
  {
    $broken = explode(' ', $aList);
	$cnt = count($broken);
	if ( $cnt == 1) $output[$broken[0]] = '';
	elseif ($cnt == 2) $output[$broken[1]] = $broken[0];
	else
	{
	  $first = '';
	  $i = 0;
	  foreach($broken as $bit)
	  {
	    if ($i < $cnt - 1) $first .= $bit;
		else $output[$bit] = $first;
	  }//loop through the broken list
	}//else
  }//end of loop through the input list
  return $output;
}//breakIt 


$author =array( 
"Bruno Aliotta", 
"Steve Mitchell", 
"Derrick M. Hussey");	

$author = breakIt($author);

dagon

I cut and pasted yur code in to a page with nothing else but a print_r($author); and the output was

Array ( [Array] => )

not quite what i was looking for😃

thanks for all your help so far.

sarahk

I've got a working version and the source code for my concept up at http://www.hostultra.com/~data/muck/authors.php

hope it helps. I hadn't tested my earlier posting and there were a few bits misisng

dagon

thnaks for all your help -i have decided to use the following to create an array of surnames that i can use in an multisort to get the names sorted by surname

 
$author_surname = array();
foreach ($author as $foo) {
$words=explode(" ",$foo);
$lastname=$words[count($words)-1];
 $author_surname[] = $lastname;
}

tekky

what you were looking for..... usort()

how to use it...

<?
function sort_names_by_sur($a, $b)
{
     list(, $last_a) = explode(' ',$a); //ditch first name for comparison, use last name only
     list(, $last_b) = exlpode(' ',$b); //same as above but for name b
     if ($a == $b)
     {
          return 0; //if they are equal, leave them in current order
     }
     return ($a < $b) ? -1 : 1; //move respectively if less than or greater than
}

$author = array( 
     "Bruno Aliotta", 
     "Steve Mitchell", 
     "Derrick M. Hussey");

usort($author, 'sort_names_by_sur'); //sort using your custom sort function

that will use a custom defined sorting function to sort by last name...

this would return:

$author as:
array(
"Bruno Aliotta",
"Derrick M. Hussey",
"Steve Mitchell")

dagon

tried your code sitll returns author sorted by first name

 
<? 
function sort_names_by_sur($a, $b) 
{ 

 list(, $last_a) = explode(' ',$a); //ditch first name for comparison, use last name only 
 list(, $last_b) = explode(' ',$b); //same as above but for name b 
 if ($a == $b) 
 { 
      return 0; //if they are equal, leave them in current order 
 } 
 return ($a < $b) ? -1 : 1; //move respectively if less than or greater than 
} 

$author =array(
"Boyd Pearson",
"Gus Thomson",
"Lin Carter"
);

print_r($author);
echo "<br><br><br>";
usort($author, 'sort_names_by_sur'); //sort using your custom sort function 
print_r($author);

?>

returns:

Array ( [0] => Boyd Pearson [1] => Gus Thomson [2] => Lin Carter )

tekky

hrm...odd, let me test

dagon

fixed if you swap
return ($a < $b) ? -1 : 1;

for

return ($b < $a) ? -1 : 1;

but only for two word names more than two word names and it uses the second word.

tekky

Originally posted by dagon
fixed if you swap
return ($a < $b) ? -1 : 1;

for

return ($b < $a) ? -1 : 1;

but only for two word names more than two word names and it uses the second word.

easily fixed 🙂

dagon

but what about

Array ( [0] => Boyd Pearson [1] => Gus Thomson [2] => Lin Carter [3] => Robert Allerton Parker )

Array ( [0] => Robert Allerton Parker [1] => Lin Carter [2] => Gus Thomson [3] => Boyd Pearson )

people with multi-word names??

tekky

like i said... easy fix...

replace list() with

$last_a = end(explode(......));
$last_b = end(explode(......)); //keep explode contents the same

tekky

cant believe I made this mistake....

here's fixed code

<? 
function sort_names_by_sur($a, $b) 
{ 
	$last_a = strtolower(end(explode(' ',$a))); //ditch first name for comparison, use last name only 
	$last_b = strtolower(end(explode(' ',$b))); //same as above but for name b 
	return strcmp($last_a,$last_b);

} 

$author =array( 
"Boyd Pearson", 

"Gus Thomson", 
"Lin Carter",
"Ali Babba's Forty-first Thief"
); 

print_r($author); 
echo "<br><br><br>"; 
usort($author, 'sort_names_by_sur'); //sort using your custom sort function 
print_r($author); 
?>

note: using $last_a and $last_b instead of $a $b :rolleyes: I was stupid earlier 😉 this one works perfect 😉

dagon

it works !🙂

problem solved

now i just have to make all those array's:mad:

dagon

ugg spoke to soon -key association must be kept so i can match up the author with the title and filename and description - ideas?

tekky

use uasort() then 😉