php order array in two ways

Question

I am trying to order the elements of an array by the following two ways:

• Sort by key length (smallest should go first) - See here
• Max value should go first

To sort by key length I use this:

    function sortByLength($a,$b){
      if($a == $b) return 0;
      return (strlen($a) < strlen($b) ? -1 : 1);
    }

    uasort($deals_tag,'sortByLength');

And the array is sorted that way:

Array
(
 [/merchantProductFeed] => 1
 [/merchantProductFeed/merchant] => 1
 [/merchantProductFeed/merchant/prod/text] => 158
 [/merchantProductFeed/merchant/prod] => 158
)

I want it to be sorted like this:

Array
(
 [/merchantProductFeed/merchant/prod] => 158
 [/merchantProductFeed/merchant/prod/text] => 158
 [/merchantProductFeed] => 1
 [/merchantProductFeed/merchant] => 1
)

Notice that first the array is sorted by key length and then by max value.

I don't know how to do that.

Any help would be highly appreciated! Thank you!

Answer 1

updated: you can use array_mulitsort. try

$k= array();
$v = array();

foreach($deals_tag as $key => $value){
    $k[] = $key;
    $v[] = $value;
}

array_multisort($v, SORT_DESC, $k, SORT_ASC,  $deals_tag);

Answer 2

I know it might be a little bit overhead but a different way to sort things is by using a (temporary) DB, I use it personally if I need some "hardcore" sorting so here it is...

<?php
$p = new PDO("sqlite::memory:");
$p->exec("CREATE TABLE a (k varchar(255),v int)");

$p->exec("INSERT INTO a (k,v) VALUES('/merchantProductFeed',1)");
$p->exec("INSERT INTO a (k,v) VALUES('/merchantProductFeed/merchant',1)");
$p->exec("INSERT INTO a (k,v) VALUES('/merchantProductFeed/merchant/prod/text',158)");
$p->exec("INSERT INTO a (k,v) VALUES('/merchantProductFeed/merchant/prod',158)");

$st=$p->query("SELECT * FROM a ORDER BY length(k) DESC,v DESC");
print_r($st->fetchAll());
?>

I donÄt know how long your string is, in this example I used varchar(255) if it is longer you should use TEXT.