Need help with Array Sorting

[neomaven]

Greetings all, wonderful forum you have here!

I searched far and wide on this and other forums, but could not find a tutorial or example of what I am trying to do.

I have the following routine that came with a PHP script I purchased to pull XML feeds from PPC search engines and sort the results based on effective bid price (bid price * my commission rate).

The script only includes the following simple routine, which compares 2 feeds. I would like to query results from 4 or 5 feeds, and sort all the results based on effective bid price. Is there an easy way to do this?

function simpleFeedSort($ary1, $ary2) {
	
	$x = count($ary1) + count($ary2);
	$aryNew = array();
	$intAry1 = 0;
	$intAry2 = 0;
	
    // create an 'Item' object
    $Item['Title'] = '';
    $Item['Url'] = '';
    $Item['Uri'] = '';
    $Item['Description'] = '';
    $Item['Bid'] = (float)'0.0';
    $Item['Impression'] = '';

	//PAD THE ARRAY TO AVOID ERRORS
    //add it to the array of items
	for ($i = 0; $i <= ($x-1); $i++) {
		$ary1[] = $Item;
		$ary2[] = $Item;
		}
	
	for ($i = 0; $i <= ($x-1); $i++) {
		if ($ary1[$intAry1]['Bid'] > $ary2[$intAry2]['Bid']) {
			$aryNew[$i]['Title'] = $ary1[$intAry1]['Title'];
			$aryNew[$i]['Url'] = $ary1[$intAry1]['Url'];
			$aryNew[$i]['Uri'] = $ary1[$intAry1]['Uri'];
			$aryNew[$i]['Description'] = $ary1[$intAry1]['Description'];
			$aryNew[$i]['Bid'] = $ary1[$intAry1]['Bid'];
			$aryNew[$i]['Impression'] = $ary1[$intAry1]['Impression'];
			$intAry1++;
		} else {
			$aryNew[$i]['Title'] = $ary2[$intAry2]['Title'];
			$aryNew[$i]['Url'] = $ary2[$intAry2]['Url'];
			$aryNew[$i]['Uri'] = $ary2[$intAry2]['Uri'];
			$aryNew[$i]['Description'] = $ary2[$intAry2]['Description'];
			$aryNew[$i]['Bid'] = $ary2[$intAry2]['Bid'];
			$aryNew[$i]['Impression'] = $ary2[$intAry2]['Impression'];
			$intAry2++;
		}
	}
	$ary1 = array();
	$ary2 = array();
	return $aryNew;
}

I would appreciate any feedback, or pointers to where i can find something to suit my needs. Thanks in advance!

neomaven

[Ren]

Use array_merge() to append multiple arrays together, then use usort() to perform the sort on the whole array.

Something like..

/* append multiple arrays together... */
$aryNew = array_merge($ary1, $ary2);
/* Comparision function for usort, comparing to items */
function compareBids($item1, $item2) { return $item1['Bid'] - $item2['Bid']; }
/* Sort */
usort($aryNew, 'compareBids');

Havent tested the code, and not sure on the ascending/descending sort order but thats changed by reversing subtraction, but should be roughly on the right track.

[neomaven]

I tried experimenting with the examply you gave Ren, but was unable to get it to work properly. I appreciate your input nevertheless, I feel like I am getting closer.


Any other suggestions from others perhaps?

Thx

[Ren]

I tried experimenting with the examply you gave Ren, but was unable to get it to work properly. I appreciate your input nevertheless, I feel like I am getting closer.

Hmm, did some testing with code below, seems fine here sorts in ascending order by bid. (Using PHP5.0.4 atleast)

function randItem()
{
	$Item = array();
    $Item['Title'] = '';
    $Item['Url'] = '';
    $Item['Uri'] = '';
    $Item['Description'] = '';
    $Item['Bid'] = (float)mt_rand(0, 100000);
    $Item['Impression'] = '';

    return $Item;
}

	$ary1 = array();
	$ary2 = array();
	$ary3 = array();
	$ary4 = array();

	for($i = 0; $i < 10; ++$i)
	{
		$ary1[] = randItem();
		$ary2[] = randItem();
		$ary3[] = randItem();
		$ary4[] = randItem();
	}

	$aryNew = array_merge($ary1, $ary2, $ary3, $ary4);

	/* Comparision function for usort, comparing to items */
	function compareBids($item1, $item2) { return $item1['Bid'] - $item2['Bid']; }
	/* Sort */
	usort($aryNew, 'compareBids');

	var_dump($aryNew);