How do I sort an array by the order of another array?

[RJP1]

Hi guys,

 

I'm trying to sort an array. The array has information about listings. ID, name, info etc.

 

An unrelated set of data also contains the listing ID's and I have made a function to sort this array and show an new order for the ID's. I now need to sort the original array by this new ID order...

 

This snippet shows that the original listings array can be sorted by link_id:

sort($this->links, $this->link->link_id); //This works. It sorts links by link ID!

 

In a foeach loop I have created this:

$sleeps_array[] = array("ID" => $link->link_id, "Sleeps" => $sleeps); // Makes an array of arrays of a custom field with listing ID.

 

It makes this:

array ( 0 => array ( 'ID' => '9', 'Sleeps' => '2', ), 1 => array ( 'ID' => '3', 'Sleeps' => '4', ), 2 => array ( 'ID' => '6', 'Sleeps' => '6', ), )

 

I can then sort this array of arrays with this function:

 

function compare_sleeps($a, $b){
return strnatcmp($a['Sleeps'], $b['Sleeps']);
} # sort alphabetically by name
usort($sleeps_array, 'compare_sleeps');

 

It then gives me a sorted array according to "Sleeps" (as in, the number of people a property can cater for). It has the correct order of ID to then output but how do I organise the original array by ID with this new array?

 

Sounds complicated, I hope you got that!

 

Cheers, RJP1

[AbraCadaver]

Not tested, but it should be easier if you created the sleeps array like this:

 

$sleeps_array[$link->link_id] = $sleeps; 

 

Then sort each one, one by value, one by key:

 

sort($this->links);
ksort($sleeps_array);

 

Then do a multisort using the sleeps array as the array to sort with:

 

array_multisort($sleeps_array, $this->links);

[RJP1]

AbraCadaver, that worked a treat! Thanks a lot, really appreciated! This has helped me understand arrays a bit better!

 

Cheers, RJP1