Req #68622 [NEW]: Function to sort an array by a particular key

From: craig at craigfrancis dot co dot uk Operating system: PHP version: Irrelevant Package: Arrays related Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Bug description:Function to sort an array by a particular key Description: ------------ As hinted by example 3: http://php.net/array_multisort I find that I'm frequently sorting arrays by a particular key (admittedly not from the database, as that has the ORDER BY clause). This can be done with: function sort_name($a, $b) { return strnatcmp($a['name'], $b['name']); } uasort($data, 'sort_name'); Or perhaps with PHP 5.3 anonymous functions: uasort($data, function ($a, $b) { return strnatcmp($a['name'], $b['name']); }); But perhaps we could introduce a function that can reduce the amount of code required (making it easier to read): array_key_sort($data, 'name'); array_key_sort($data, 'name', SORT_STRING); The example implementation below uses a class, as unfortunately my code needs to run on a PHP 5.1 server (so no anonymous functions). Test script: --------------- function array_key_sort(&$array, $key, $type = 'numerical') { $array_key_sort = new array_key_sort($key); uasort($array, array($array_key_sort, $type)); } class array_key_sort { private $key = NULL; public function __construct($key) { $this->key = $key; } public function numerical($a, $b) { if ($a[$this->key] == $b[$this->key]) { return 0; } return ($a[$this->key] < $b[$this->key] ? -1 : 1); } public function strcmp($a, $b) { return strcmp($a[$this->key], $b[$this->key]); } public function strcasecmp($a, $b) { return strcasecmp($a[$this->key], $b[$this->key]); } public function strnatcmp($a, $b) { return strnatcmp($a[$this->key], $b[$this->key]); } public function strnatcasecmp($a, $b) { return strnatcasecmp($a[$this->key], $b[$this->key]); } } -- Edit bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=68622&edit=1 -- Try a snapshot (PHP 5.4): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=68622&r=trysnapshot54 Try a snapshot (PHP 5.5): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=68622&r=trysnapshot55 Try a snapshot (trunk): https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=68622&r=trysnapshottrunk Fixed in SVN: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=68622&r=fixed Fixed in release: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=68622&r=alreadyfixed Need backtrace: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=68622&r=needtrace Need Reproduce Script: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=68622&r=needscript Try newer version: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=68622&r=oldversion Not developer issue: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=68622&r=support Expected behavior: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=68622&r=notwrong Not enough info: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=68622&r=notenoughinfo Submitted twice: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=68622&r=submittedtwice register_globals: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=68622&r=globals PHP 4 support discontinued: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=68622&r=php4 Daylight Savings: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=68622&r=dst IIS Stability: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=68622&r=isapi Install GNU Sed: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=68622&r=gnused Floating point limitations: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=68622&r=float No Zend Extensions: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=68622&r=nozend MySQL Configuration Error: https://bugs.php.net/fix.php?id=68622&r=mysqlcfg