PHP - Custom output for a multi-dimensional array

Question

In PHP I have a two-dimensional array called $listing that will contain data with the following structure:

(
    [1] => Array
        (
            [category] => tech
            [business_name] => Apple
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [category] => food
            [business_name] => McDonalds
        )

    [3] => Array
        (
            [category] => tech
            [business_name] => Dell
        )

)

I want to output this in plain text grouped by category (ordered alphabetically) and then *business_name* (ordered alphabetically). Note that this is just a subset of how this will display - there could be 50 categories and 1000's of listings - so the code needs to take that into account.

So using the output for $listing as outlined above I would need it to output like the following:

category: food
business_name: McDonalds

category: tech
business_name: Apple
business_name: Dell

Please Help. Thanks in advance.

Although the solution to this problem is quite easy, I'd like to know what have you tried so far — A. Rodas
– A. Rodas, Commented Feb 24, 2013 at 5:50

Rob · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-24 05:57:51Z

2

There are a ton of ways to do this but this should get you started.

$data = array();

foreach ($listing as $item) {
    $data[$item['category']][] = $item['business_name'];
}

ksort($data);

$data = array_map(function($names) {
    sort($names);
    return $names;
}, $data);

Untested...

answered Feb 24, 2013 at 5:57

Rob

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Comments

Majid Q. · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-24 05:56:33Z

0

Have a look at PHP multiarray sort http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.array-multisort.php to multi-sort your array, see if that helps

answered Feb 24, 2013 at 5:56

Majid Q.

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Comments

mohan.gade · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-24 06:54:10Z

I have used array_multisort() function. Look at below code .

                         <?php

                //array to sort 
                $data[0] = array('category'=> 'tech','business_name' => 'apple')  ;
                $data[1] = array('category'=> 'food','business_name' => 'McDonalds')  ;
                $data[2] = array('category'=> 'tech','business_name' => 'dell')  ;
                $data[3] = array('category'=> 'food','business_name' => 'subway')  ;

                foreach($data as $key => $val){
                 $cat[$key] = $val['category'];
                 $bus[$key] = $val['business_name'];
                }

                // Sort the data with category and business_name with ascending order
                array_multisort($cat, SORT_ASC, $bus, SORT_ASC, $data);
       //         echo "<pre>";print_r($data);echo "</pre>";unset($val);

                //put the category as key And business name as value with comma seperated.
                $category = array();
                foreach($data as $key => $val){
                    if(array_key_exists($val['category'],$category ))
                    {
                        $category[$val['category']] = $category[$val['category']].', '.$val['business_name'];
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        $category[$val['category']] = $val['business_name']; // $category 
                    }   
                }

                //print the sorted data

                foreach($category as $key => $val){
                    //print category
                    echo "<br /> <br />Category: ".$key;
                    $b_name = explode(',', $val);
                    //to print busniess name
                    foreach($b_name as $k => $v){
                        echo "<br />Business Name: ".$v;
                    }
                 }


                ?>




        //OUTPUT


       Category: food
       Business Name: McDonalds
       Business Name: subway

       Category: tech
       Business Name: apple
       Business Name: dell

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