PHP custom sort array of strings by multiple criteria

Question

I have an array of font names which comes to me in terms of width, and then in terms of weight (alphabetically). The standard width has no indicator within the string like the other widths do (condensed, expanded etc). Here's what the array looks like when I get it:

Array ( 
[0] => Bold 
[1] => ExtraBold 
[2] => ExtraLight 
[3] => Light 
[4] => Medium 
[5] => Regular 
[6] => SemiBold 
[7] => Thin 
[8] => Condensed Bold 
[9] => Condensed ExtraBold 
[10] => Condensed ExtraLight 
[11] => Condensed Light 
[12] => Condensed Medium 
[13] => Condensed Regular 
[14] => Condensed SemiBold 
[15] => Condensed Thin 
[16] => Expanded Black 
[17] => Expanded Bold 
[18] => Expanded ExtraBold 
[19] => Expanded ExtraLight 
[20] => Expanded Light 
[21] => Expanded Medium 
[22] => Expanded Regular 
[23] => Expanded SemiBold 
[24] => Expanded Thin)

I need to then sort it first according to this width order:

$order_array_crit_one = array("Expanded", "Standard", "Condensed");

And then according to weight in this order:

$order_array_crit_two = array("Black", "ExtraBold", "Bold", "SemiBold", "Medium", "Regular", "Light", "Thin", "ExtraLight");

I kind of worked it out using a sort function that compared words (like this), but every solution I've come up with so far has been bulky and confusing.

So in this example, am I right to assume that "Bold" is the same as "Standard Bold"? — nibnut
– nibnut, Commented Jan 11, 2017 at 21:33
This would probably be pretty easy with the function usort php.net/usort — S. Imp
– S. Imp, Commented Jan 11, 2017 at 22:12

Casimir et Hippolyte · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-11 22:28:34Z

2

The problem with too complicated comparisons is that it makes usort not very efficient since it must transform and evaluate items a lot of times. But you can reduce this work if you transform the array before, in a way to use a basic sort. An idea is to rebuild the array but this time with a calculated numeric key :

// 3 items need 2 bits to be represented:
// ( 0 => 00 => "Expanded", 1 => 01 => "Standard", 2 => 10 => "Condensed" )
$crit1 = ["Expanded", "Standard", "Condensed"];
// 9 items need 4 bits to be represented:
// ( 0 => 0000 => "Black", ... 8 => 1000 => "ExtraLight" )
$crit2 = ["Black", "ExtraBold", "Bold", "SemiBold", "Medium", "Regular", "Light", "Thin", "ExtraLight"];
// if you join all the bits, each item of your array can be represented with a 6
// bits number:
// ( 0 => 000000 => "Expanded Black" ... 40 => 101000 => "Condensed ExtraLight" )

$crit2 = array_flip($crit2);

$result = [];

foreach ($arr as $item) {
    if (false !== strpos($item, "Expanded"))
        $key = 0;  // 000000
    elseif (false !== strpos($item, "Condensed"))
        $key = 32; // 100000
    else
        $key = 16; // 010000

    $parts = explode(' ', $item);
    $weight = isset($parts[1]) ? $parts[1] : $parts[0];
    $key += $crit2[$weight];

    $result[$key] = $item;
}

ksort($result, SORT_NUMERIC);
$result = array_values($result);

print_r($result);

demo

edited Jan 11, 2017 at 22:28

answered Jan 11, 2017 at 22:07

Casimir et Hippolyte

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2 Comments

user1063020 Over a year ago

Thanks for the demo link. This is already way more concise than what I had.

Casimir et Hippolyte Over a year ago

@user1063020: the important thing with this code is that the keys of the new array are calculated once and for all, and not each time you need them to compare with an other item. The conciseness isn't important.

TinkerTenorSoftwareGuy · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-11 21:31:17Z

0

Why not create an Array of FontName objects instead, which can contain defined properties such as width, weight, length, whatever you want. Then you can choose to sort by that particular property.

//pseudo-code

class FontName {
  //member variables - can use getters and setters if you want
  name;
  width;
  weight;
  length;
}

sort(FontNameArray, propertyname) {
   // use reflection to get the value of propertyname from the FontName object
   // sort by that value
}

answered Jan 11, 2017 at 21:31

TinkerTenorSoftwareGuy

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Comments

nibnut · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-11 21:46:26Z

Assuming "Bold" is the same as "Standard Bold", and that you can not change the input array as suggested in other answers, this would work:

$font_details = function($font) use ($order_array_crit_one, $order_array_crit_two) {
    $matches = explode(' ', $font);
    $details = new StdClass();

    $details->crit_one = (count($matches) > 1) ? $matches[0] : 'Standard';
    $details->crit_one_position = array_search($details->crit_one, $order_array_crit_one);
    $details->crit_two = (count($matches) > 1) ? $matches[1] : $matches[0];
    $details->crit_two_position = array_search($details->crit_two, $order_array_crit_two);

    return $details;
};

// $fonts is your input array $fonts = array('Bold', 'ExtraBold',...
usort($fonts, function($a, $b) use($font_details) {
    $a_details = $font_details($a);
    $b_details = $font_details($b);

    if($a_details->crit_one_position < $b_details->crit_one_position) return -1;
    if($a_details->crit_one_position > $b_details->crit_one_position) return 1;
    // ELSE, criteria one is the same for both - we need to look at criteria two:
    if($a_details->crit_two_position < $b_details->crit_two_position) return -1;
    if($a_details->crit_two_position > $b_details->crit_two_position) return 1;
    // ELSE both criteria are the same (same font?)
    return 0;
});

print_r($fonts); // should be sorted!

Hope this helps!

Michael Sacket · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-12 19:17:56Z

This question was bugging me all night so I came up with another option. This is a generic and reusable solution that will work for any criteria. (At least any that I can think of.) You can find a demo here.

<?php

/**
 *  Sorts an array based on matching multiple criteria.
 *
 *  Given:
 *  $array => ['big cat', 'small dog', 'big dog', 'small cat']
 *  $criteria => [['dog','cat'], ['big','small']]
 *
 *  Result: (biggest to smallest)
 *  ['big dog', 'small dog', 'big cat', 'small cat'] 
 */
function multi_sort(&$array, $criteria, $defaults=array()){
    $cache = array();

    // prepare the criteria by sorting them from longest to shortest 
    // maintaining the original key (index)
    foreach($criteria as &$c){
        uasort($c, function($a,$b){
            return  strlen($b) - strlen($a);
        });
    }

    // define a function for returning the index matching the given str
    // given: 'one' and ['zero', 'one', 'two'] returns 1
    $findIndex = function($str, $values){
        foreach($values as $index=>$value){
            if( stripos($str, $value) !== FALSE ){
                return $index;
            }
        }
        return NULL;
    };

    // define a function to calculate a weighted value based on the criteria
    // returns a value similar to: 2000-0000-3300 (one segment for each criteria)
    $calculateValue = function($str) use ($criteria, $findIndex, $defaults, $cache){
        if( !isset($cache[$str]) ){
            $parts = array();
            foreach($criteria as $i=>$c){
                $parts[$i] = $findIndex($str, $c);
                if( $parts[$i] === NULL ){
                    $parts[$i] = (isset($defaults[$i]) ? $defaults[$i] : 1000);
                }
                $parts[$i] = str_pad($parts[$i], 4, '0');
            }
            $cache[$str] = implode($parts, '-');
        }
        return $cache[$str];
    };

    // define our compare function
    $compare = function($a, $b) use ($calculateValue){
        $av = $calculateValue($a);
        $bv = $calculateValue($b);
        return $av > $bv;
    };

    // sort the array`
    usort($array, $compare);
}

$list = array(
    'Bold', 'ExtraBold', 'ExtraLight', 'Light', 'Medium', 'Regular', 'SemiBold', 'Thin', 'Condensed Bold', 'Expanded Black', 'Condensed ExtraLight', 'Expanded Thin'
);

// create our sort criteria.
$sort_criteria = array(
    array("Expanded", "Standard", "Condensed"),
    array("Black", "ExtraBold", "Bold", "SemiBold", "Medium", "Regular", "Light", "Thin", "ExtraLight")
);
// sort our array; default for criteria 1 is 1 (i.e. Standard)
multi_sort($list, $sort_criteria, array(1));
print_r($list);

// lets sort some animals from biggest to smallest.
$animals = ['big cat', 'small dog', 'big dog', 'small cat'];
$sort_criteria = [['dog','cat'], ['big','small']];
multi_sort($animals, $sort_criteria);
print_r($animals);

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