Sort Multi-dimensional array by decimal values

Question

What I'm trying to do is sort a multi-dimensional array that contains decimal values. From what I've tested, floats are having trouble being ordered properly.

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [company] => Ebay
            [weight] => 4.6
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [company] => Ebay
            [weight] => 1.7
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [company] => Ebay
            [weight] => 3.7
        )
)


usort($array, 'order_by_weight');

// Sorts DESC highest first
function order_by_weight($a, $b) {
    return $b['weight'] - $a['weight'];
}

What is the best way to sort these numbers in descending?

Answer 1

$arr = array(
    array('company' => 'A', 'weight' => 4.6),
    array('company' => 'B', 'weight' => 1.7),
    array('company' => 'C', 'weight' => 3.7),
);

usort($arr, 'order_by_weight');

function order_by_weight($a, $b) {
    return $b['weight'] > $a['weight'] ? 1 : -1;
}

var_dump($arr);

PS: it's not a rocket science - this exact "trick" is used as the first example at http://php.net/usort

Answer 2

You can do this with anonymous function in just one line

$arr = array(
    array('company' => 'A', 'weight' => 4.6),
    array('company' => 'B', 'weight' => 1.7),
    array('company' => 'C', 'weight' => 3.7),
);
usort($arr, function($a, $b) { return $b['weight'] > $a['weight'] ;});

print_r($arr);

Hope this helps :)

Answer 3

You can sort the array using array_multisort, altough, this is often used to sort on multiple array values instead of one.

echo "<pre>";

 $a = array(
     array('company' => 'ebay', 'weight' => 4.6), 
     array('company' => 'ebay', 'weight' => 1.7),
     array('company' => 'ebay', 'weight' => 3.7),
     array('company' => 'ebay', 'weight' => 2.7),
     array('company' => 'ebay', 'weight' => 9.7),
     array('company' => 'ebay', 'weight' => 0.7),
 );

 $company = array();
 $weight = array();

 foreach($a as $key=>$val) {
     array_push($company, $val['company']);
     array_push($weight, $val['weight']);
 }

 array_multisort($weight, SORT_ASC, $a);

 print_r($a);