How to sort a php associative array to a specific order?

Question

this is the array i like to sort in a particular order

$aData = Array
 (
 [break] => Array
 (
 [Indoor room] => 42
 [Gym Class] => 19
 )
 [finish] => Array
 (
 [Indoor room] => 42
 [Gym Class] => 19
 )
 [lunch] => Array
 (
 [Indoor room] => 7
 )
 [period1] => Array
 (
 [Indoor room] => 12
 [Gym Class] => 22
 )
 [period2] => Array
 (
 [Gym Class] => 14
 [Indoor room] => 25
 )
 [period3] => Array
 (
 [Gym Class] => 21
 [Indoor room] => 11
 )
 [period4] => Array
 (
 [Gym Class] => 22
 [Indoor room] => 20
 )
 [period5] => Array
 (
 [Gym Class] => 16
 [Indoor room] => 9
 )
)

But i like it in this order:

break, period1, period2, lunch, period3, period5, period6, finish

for this I am trying the following php code

$arraySort = [
 "break", 
 "period1", 
 "period2", 
 "period3", 
 "lunch",
 "period4",
 "period5", 
 "period6", 
 "finish" 
];
 foreach($aData as $period => $catsScore){
 echo 'test '.$period.'<br/>'; 
 $periodItem = [$period];
 foreach($arraySort as $cat){
 echo 'new: '.$cat.'<br/>';
 $periodItem[] = $catsScore;
 }
 $output[] = $periodItem;
 }
print_r($output);

Answer 1

Easy- Just use the arraySort as the assoc key and get the corresponding array / value from the original array,

<?php
$arraySort = [
 "break", 
 "period1", 
 "period2", 
 "period3", 
 "lunch",
 "period4",
 "period5", 
 "period6", 
 "finish" 
];
$final_array = [];
foreach($arraySort as $arraySo){
 $final_array[$arraySo] = isset($aData[$arraySo]) ? $aData[$arraySo] : [];
}
print_r($final_array);

Output:- https://3v4l.org/4LXvS

• alex: Thanks Alive, this is the one I understand. You just use the arraySort as the assoc key and get the corresponding array / value from the original array, right?

Answer 2

Make correctly ordered array and fill it by value from source array

$final_array = array_replace(array_fill_keys($arraySort, []), $aData);

demo

Answer 3

Alternatively you could use an actual sorting function:

uksort(
 $aData,
 function($a,$b)use($arraySort){
 return array_search($a, $arraySort) - array_search($b, $arraySort);
 }
);

• http://php.net/manual/en/function.uksort.php
• http://php.net/manual/en/function.array-search.php

Answer 4

you can use array_combine for this purpose:

$arrary_sort = ["break", "period1"];
$final_array = array_combine($array_sort, $your_array_here);

• Mark Baker: That will just "rename" the existing values, not reorder them correctly
• splash58: You change keys but don't reorder array