Sort a 2d array by its name column but ignoring the names' prefixes

Question

I want to sort an array of rows by the name column value, but critically I want to sort while ignoring the users' prefixes.

Sample array:

$ad_users = [
    ["name" => "Mr San", "department" => "five"],
    ["name" => "Mr VSan", "department" => "six"],
    ["name" => "Mr QSan", "department" => "four"],
    ["name" => "Sr ASan", "department" => "two"],
    ["name" => "Dr ASan", "department" => "one"],
    ["name" => "Dr FSan", "department" => "three"]
];

Desired result:

[
    ["name" => "Dr ASan", "department" => "one"],
    ["name" => "Sr ASan", "department" => "two"],
    ["name" => "Dr FSan", "department" => "three"],
    ["name" => "Mr QSan", "department" => "four"],
    ["name" => "Mr San", "department" => "five"],
    ["name" => "Mr VSan", "department" => "six"]
]

My current code:

for ($x = 0; $x < count($ad_users); $x++) {
    $ad_users[$x]['name']= ucwords($ad_users[$x]['name']);
    $end = (explode(',', $ad_users[$x]['name']));
    $lastname = array_pop($end);
    sort($end);
    $firstname = implode(" ", $end);
    $ad_users[$x]['name']=$lastname." ".$firstname;
}
sort($ad_users);
for ($x = 0; $x < count($ad_users); $x++) {
    echo $ad_users[$x]['name']."\n";
}

Answer 1

You make it clear in your comment that you originally have the name as firstname lastname, title, so you just need to sort first, then move the title to the front:

<?php
sort($ad_users);

// I've copied this section as-is, it looks like it could be improved
// but I can't be sure I'm making the correct improvements without seeing
// the original data
for ($x = 0; $x < count($ad_users); $x++) {
    $ad_users[$x]['name']= ucwords($ad_users[$x]['name']);
    $end = (explode(',', $ad_users[$x]['name']));
    $lastname = array_pop($end);
    sort($end);
    $firstname = implode(" ", $end);
    $ad_users[$x]['name']=$lastname." ".$firstname;
}

for ($x = 0; $x < count($ad_users); $x++) {
    echo $ad_users[$x]['name']."\n";
}
?>

Answer 2

You should prepare your data (Remove all Dr., Ms., etc) and then sort cleaned names only.

Answer 3

    <?php
        uasort($array, function($a, $b) {
            $needles = ['Dr.', 'Ms.', ];
            $a = trim(str_replace($needles,'', $a['name']));
            $b = trim(str_replace($needles,'', $b['name']));
            if ($a == $b) {
                return 0;
            }
            return ($a < $b) ? -1 : 1;
        });

Answer 4

First of all: Do not count() a constant array in a for loop! You explode() with a non-existent delimiter, so the resulting array has exactly one element which you remove with array_pop(). Then you sort() and implode() an empty array. So you get a random (in this case unchanged) result.

Please check http://php.net/usort

Answer 5

You can change your code as

<?php
function sortByOrder($a, $b) {
     $prefix = ['Mr.', 'Ms.','Dr.'];
     $a = trim(str_replace($prefix,"", $a['name']));
     $b = trim(str_replace($prefix,"", $b['name']));

    return $a > $b;
}

$myArray = array(
      array("name"=>"Dr.    bbb"),
      array("name"=>"Mr. aaa"),
      array("name"=>"Ms.  ccc")
);

$abc = usort($myArray, 'sortByOrder');
print_r($myArray);
?>

Check here : https://eval.in/569467

Output would be :

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [name] => Mr. aaa
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [name] => Dr.    bbb
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [name] => Ms.  ccc
        )

)

Answer 6

usort() has a more expensive time complexity and will require double the function calls within each iteration. Instead, I recommend using array_multisort() and preparing a sorting array with minimal function calls.

Isolate the name column values, then trim the prefix off of every value, then compare those strings. After that, you can effectively sort on the prefixes by sorting on the whole rows.

Code: (Demo)

array_multisort(
    preg_replace('/^[^ ]+ /', '', array_column($data, 'name')),
    $data
);