Find closest date/time in Array of Objects

Question

I'm looking for some advise on what would be the best way to find the closest startTime (recommended startTime).

What I've got so far:

<?php
$array = array(    array("meeting_id" => "1812",  
                         "startTime" => "2016-10-07 14:30:00", 
                         "endTime" => "2016-10-07 14:35:00"),
                   array("meeting_id" => "1812",  
                         "startTime" => "2016-10-07 14:35:00", 
                         "endTime" => "2016-10-07 14:40:00"),
                   array("meeting_id" => "1812",  
                         "startTime" => "2016-10-07 14:40:00", 
                         "endTime" => "2016-10-07 14:45:00"),
                   array("meeting_id" => "1813",  
                         "startTime" => "2016-10-07 15:05:00", 
                         "endTime" => "2016-10-07 15:10:00"),
                   array("meeting_id" => "1813",  
                         "startTime" => "2016-10-07 15:10:00", 
                         "endTime" => "2016-10-07 15:15:00"),
                   array("meeting_id" => "1813",  
                         "startTime" => "2016-10-07 15:20:00", 
                         "endTime" => "2016-10-07 15:25:00"),
    );

arsort($array);
$firstTime = $array[0];
foreach($array as $key){
    if($firstTime["startTime"] > $key["endTime"]){
        // Do something in here.
    }
}

print_r($array);


?>

Printed Array:

Array
(
    [5] => Array
        (
            [meeting_id] => 1813
            [startTime] => 2016-10-07 15:20:00
            [endTime] => 2016-10-07 15:25:00
        )

    [4] => Array
        (
            [meeting_id] => 1813
            [startTime] => 2016-10-07 15:10:00
            [endTime] => 2016-10-07 15:15:00
        )

    [3] => Array
        (
            [meeting_id] => 1813
            [startTime] => 2016-10-07 15:05:00
            [endTime] => 2016-10-07 15:10:00
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [meeting_id] => 1812
            [startTime] => 2016-10-07 14:40:00
            [endTime] => 2016-10-07 14:45:00
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [meeting_id] => 1812
            [startTime] => 2016-10-07 14:35:00
            [endTime] => 2016-10-07 14:40:00
        )

    [0] => Array
        (
            [meeting_id] => 1812
            [startTime] => 2016-10-07 14:30:00
            [endTime] => 2016-10-07 14:35:00
        )

)

How I would expect it to work:

Find the earliest start time for meeting_id == 1812, and then find the closest next meeting whose ID != 1812. However the start time of those meeting ID != 1812 needs to be greater than the selected end time of 1812

You can sort with the startTime and take the first row. For the sorting sort-multi-dimensional-array-by-specific-key — Murad Hasan
– Murad Hasan, Commented Oct 10, 2016 at 10:34
Check this for sorting with date stackoverflow.com/questions/2910611/… — jitendrapurohit
– jitendrapurohit, Commented Oct 10, 2016 at 10:38

BenM · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-10 11:11:41Z

2

The following function will take your array as the first argument, and the Meeting ID as the second, and will in turn return the nearest meeting to the earliest meeting whose ID is not $id:

function get_nearest_meeting($meetings, $id)
{
    // Start by sorting the meetings:
    function sorter($a, $b)
    {
        return strtotime($a['startTime']) - strtotime($b['startTime']);
    }
    usort($meetings, 'sorter');

    foreach( $meetings as $meeting )
    {
        if( $meeting['meeting_id'] == $id)
        {
            $earliest = strtotime( $meeting['endTime'] );
            break;
        }
    }

    // Now loop over again and get the next meeting:
    foreach( $meetings as $meeting )
    {
        if( $meeting['meeting_id'] != $id && strtotime($meeting['startTime']) > $earliest)
        {
            return $meeting;
        }
    }
}

Given the following input (stored in $meetings):

And calling it like this:

get_nearest_meeting($meetings, 1812);

We end up with the following result:

Array
(
    [errors] => 0
    [meeting_id] => 1813
    [id] => 31305
    [startTime] => 2016-10-07 14:10:00
    [endTime] => 2016-10-07 14:20:00
    [grade_id] => 87
)

edited Oct 10, 2016 at 11:11

answered Oct 10, 2016 at 10:52

BenM

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8 Comments

YaBCK Over a year ago

Hey BenM - Thanks for this. However could it work a little differently, so when the id is passed it will check the earliest startTime then it will check the rest to find the closest start time which is greater than the endTime of the chosen earliest time based on the passed id?

BenM Over a year ago

Okay, so you wish to find the earliest start time for meeting_id == 1812, and then find the closest next meeting whose ID != 1812?

YaBCK Over a year ago

Exactly that :)

YaBCK Over a year ago

However the next meet whose ID != 1812 has to have a start time greater than the end time in the selected meeting with ID == 1812

BenM Over a year ago

@ChrisBeckett Please see the edited answer. It should work as you expect now.

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