Split array based on a property

PHP
1

I have an array that contains a query and gives me values like


[0] => stdClass Object ( [id] => 233 [title] => Login [path] => login [link] => index.php?option=com_users&view=login [parent_id] => 1 [level] => 1 [lft] => 11 ) 
[1] => stdClass Object ( [id] => 238 [title] => Sample Sites [path] => sample-sites [link] => index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=38 [parent_id] => 1 [level] => 1 [lft] => 259 )

Giving those and taking in consideration that I don´t know the values of lft as they are random how can I select from the array the object with the lowest number in lft?

Just to make my question a little be clearer as I don´t know if I´m making any sense, if I have an array with values 6, 1, 3, 10, 25 if I want to access the 1 in this case the index is 1 so I can just go $array[1]; but what if I want to access 1 but don´t know the index, all I know is that I need the lowest number in the array which in this case turns out to be 1.

2

Look at each object in the array, keep track of the smallest you’ve seen, then at the end you’ll know which had the smallest value.

$min = 9999;
$min_index = 0;
foreach ($array as $index => $object) {
    if ($object->lft < $min) {
        $min = $object->lft;
        $min_index = $index;
    }
}

$one_you_want = $array[$min_index];
3

Alternatively, you could use [fphp]usort[/fphp] and simply get the first element in the array. :slight_smile:


function sortByLft(stdClass $a, stdClass $b){
  if($a->lft === $b->lft){
    return 0;
  }
  return $a->lft < $b->lft ? -1 : 1 ;
}

usort($collection, 'sortByLft');

$lowestLft = $collection[0];
4
Off Topic:

The return values from the sorting function needn’t be exactly -1, 0 or 1. The body of that function could be reduced to simply:

return $a->lft - $b->lft;
5

Well I never, more things to investigate.

Cheers Salathe. :slight_smile:

6

If there are many elements in this array (not that there probably are), the linear search will be much faster than a quicksort.

7

There could be 1 or many, also each index of the array has a lot more properties, I will try all the suggestions and let you know how it went.