Sorting a Multidimensional array

[ts10]

Hello:

I'm using array_multisort() to attempt to sort my multidimensional array but I can't get it to work right. The examples on php.net don't seem to fit what I'm doing or I can't seem to apply it correctly.

Here's an example of my array:

<?php $stateList = array( 	array ( Location => "Alabama",
																		array( Territory => "Baldwin County",
																					 Publisher => "Midway Publishing, LLC",
																					 Phone => "251-555-1212",
																					 Website => "http://test.com"
																					),
																		array( Territory => "Butler County",
																					 Publisher => "Grey-Wells Publishing",
																					 Phone => "555-555-2121",
																					 Website => "http://test.com"
																					),
																		array( Territory => "Crenshaw County",
																					 Publisher => "Grey-Wells Publishing",
																					 Phone => "334-555-3232",
																					 Website => "http://test.com"
																					)		

Of course, these are currently in ABC order but they won't always be from here on out.

I have a loop ($a) to run through Location (currently only showing Alabama above) and then a loop inside that ($b) to show the counties.

Here's my attempt at array_multisort():

$sortCountyABC = array_multisort($stateList[$a]["Loction"], SORT_ASC);
print_r($sortCountyABC);

Every way I try nothing works!

I get:
Warning: array_multisort() [function.array-multisort]: Argument #1 is expected to be an array or a sort flag in /home/tidbitsnet/domains/tidbitsweekly.net/public_html/tidbits_locations.php on line 2

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[laserlight]

For starters, the structure of your array is not clear since your example is not syntactically correct.

Would this be a correct example?

$stateList = array(
    array(
        'Territory' => "Baldwin County",
        'Publisher' => "Midway Publishing, LLC",
        'Phone' => "251-555-1212",
        'Website' => "http://test.com"
    ),
    array(
        'Territory' => "Butler County",
        'Publisher' => "Grey-Wells Publishing",
        'Phone' => "555-555-2121",
        'Website' => "http://test.com"
    ),
    array(
        'Territory' => "Crenshaw County",
        'Publisher' => "Grey-Wells Publishing",
        'Phone' => "334-555-3232",
        'Website' => "http://test.com"
    )
);

[ts10]

Not really. I didn't include the entire array for the sake of space and was hoping to put just enough to show my intentions. I will go ahead and post the entire thing:

<?php $stateList = array( 	array ( Location => "Alabama",
  array( Territory => "Baldwin County",
				 Publisher => "Midway Publishing, LLC",
				 Phone => "251-947-4648",
				 Website => "http://tidbitsofbaldwincounty.com"
				),
	array( Territory => "Butler County",
				 Publisher => "Grey-Wells Publishing",
				 Phone => "334-382-6262",
				 Website => "http://www.tidbitsweekly.com/publisher/tidbitsofgreenville_and_montgomery"
				),
	array( Territory => "Crenshaw County",
				 Publisher => "Grey-Wells Publishing",
				 Phone => "334-382-6262",
				 Website => "http://www.tidbitsweekly.com/publisher/tidbitsofgreenville_and_montgomery"
				),																					
	array( Territory => "Lowndes County",
				 Publisher => "Grey-Wells Publishing",
				 Phone => "334-382-6262",
				 Website => "http://www.tidbitsweekly.com/publisher/tidbitsofgreenville_and_montgomery"
				),
	array( Territory => "Pike County",
				 Publisher => "Grey-Wells Publishing",
				 Phone => "334-382-6262",
				 Website => "http://www.tidbitsweekly.com/publisher/tidbitsofgreenville_and_montgomery"
				),
	array( Territory => "Lee County",
				 Publisher => "Path Consulting Group",
				 Phone => "334-524-8883",
				 Website => "http://tidbitsofbaldwincounty.com"
				),
	array( Territory => "Montgomery County",
				 Publisher => "Grey-Wells Publishing",
				 Phone => "334-382-6262",
				 Website => "http://www.tidbitsweekly.com/publisher/tidbitsofgreenville_and_montgomery"
				),	
	array( Territory => "Russell County",
				 Publisher => "Path Consulting Group",
				 Phone => "334-524-8883",
				 Website => ""
				)																																																																																																																																													
),
array ( Location => "Alaska" ),
array ( Location => "Arizona" ),
array ( Location => "Arkansas" ),
array ( Location => "California" ),
array ( Location => "Colorado" ),
array ( Location => "Connecticut" ),
array ( Location => "Delaware" ),
array ( Location => "Florida" ),
array ( Location => "Georgia" ),
array ( Location => "Hawaii" ),
array ( Location => "Idaho" ),
array ( Location => "Illinois" ),
array ( Location => "Indiana" ),
array ( Location => "Iowa" ),
array ( Location => "Kansas " ),
array ( Location => "Kentucky " ),
array ( Location => "Louisiana" ),
array ( Location => "Maine" ),
array ( Location => "Maryland" ),
array ( Location => "Massachusetts" ), 
array ( Location => "Michigan" ),
array ( Location => "Minnesota" ),
array ( Location => "Mississippi" ),
array ( Location => "Missouri" ),
array ( Location => "Montana" ),
array ( Location => "Nebraska" ),
array ( Location => "Nevada" ),
array ( Location => "New Hampshire" ),
array ( Location => "New Jersey" ),
array ( Location => "New Mexico" ),
array ( Location => "New York" ),
array ( Location => "North Carolina" ),
array ( Location => "North Dakota" ),
array ( Location => "Ohio" ),
array ( Location => "Oklahoma" ),
array ( Location => "Oregon" ),
array ( Location => "Pennsylvania" ),
array ( Location => "Rhode Island" ),
array ( Location => "South Carolina" ),
array ( Location => "South Dakota" ),
array ( Location => "Tennessee" ),
array ( Location => "Texas" ),
array ( Location => "Utah" ),
array ( Location => "Vermont" ),
array ( Location => "Virginia" ),
array ( Location => "Washington" ),
array ( Location => "West Virginia" ),
array ( Location => "Wisconsin" ),
array ( Location => "Wyoming" )
						)
?>

[ClarkF1]

I found the following on the array_multisort function page at php.net and it works fine for me:

function sortmddata($array, $by, $order, $type){

//$array: the array you want to sort
//$by: the associative array name that is one level deep
////example: name
//$order: ASC or DESC
//$type: num or str

$sortby = "sort$by"; //This sets up what you are sorting by

$firstval = current($array); //Pulls over the first array

$vals = array_keys($firstval); //Grabs the associate Arrays

foreach ($vals as $init){
    $keyname = "sort$init";
    $$keyname = array();
}
//This was strange because I had problems adding
//Multiple arrays into a variable variable
//I got it to work by initializing the variable variables as arrays
//Before I went any further

foreach ($array as $key => $row) {

foreach ($vals as $names){
    $keyname = "sort$names";
    $test = array();
    $test[$key] = $row[$names];
    $$keyname = array_merge($$keyname,$test);

}

}

//This will create dynamic mini arrays so that I can perform
//the array multisort with no problem
//Notice the temp array... I had to do that because I
//cannot assign additional array elements to a
//varaiable variable           

if ($order == "DESC"){   

if ($type == "num"){
array_multisort($$sortby,SORT_DESC, SORT_NUMERIC,$array);
} else {
array_multisort($$sortby,SORT_DESC, SORT_STRING,$array);
}
} else {
if ($type == "num"){
array_multisort($$sortby,SORT_ASC, SORT_NUMERIC,$array);
} else {
array_multisort($$sortby,SORT_ASC, SORT_STRING,$array);
}
}

//This just goed through and asks the additional arguments
//What they are doing and are doing variations of
//the multisort

return $array;
}

Example of usage:

//Here is an array example
$test[0]['name'] = "David";
$test[0]['age'] = 28;
$test[1]['name'] = "Dennis";
$test[1]['age'] = 23;
$test[2]['name'] = "Joseph";
$test[2]['age'] = 42;

$test = sortmddata($test,'age','ASC','num');

print_r ($test);

//This will return
//Array (
//[0] => Array ([name] => Dennis [age] => 23 )
//[1] => Array ( [name] => David [age] => 28 )
//[2] => Array ( [name] => Joseph [age] => 42 )
//)