13

If I have an Illuminate\Support\Collection, how do I sort by multiple properties with both asc and desc? (This is a simple hypothetical - not at all looking for tips on query building.)

$collection = User::all(); // not looking for User::orderBy()->get() solutions.  Read the question.
$sorting_insructions = [
    ['column'=>'first_name', 'order'=>'asc'],
    ['column'=>'date_of_birth', 'order'=>'desc'],
];
$collection->sort(function($a,$b) use ($sorting_instructions){
    // something...
});
Tarek Adam
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5 Answers5

17

I know this question is from a while back, but in case anyone stumbles across it, Laravel does provide this functionality now (v8.x at the time of writing).

See the official docs for more detail. (4th code block example in the sort-by section) https://laravel.com/docs/8.x/collections#method-sortby

From the docs:

If you would like to sort your collection by multiple attributes, you may pass an array of sort operations to the sortBy method. Each sort operation should be an array consisting of the attribute that you wish to sort by and the direction of the desired sort:

$collection = collect([
    ['name' => 'Taylor Otwell', 'age' => 34],
    ['name' => 'Abigail Otwell', 'age' => 30],
    ['name' => 'Taylor Otwell', 'age' => 36],
    ['name' => 'Abigail Otwell', 'age' => 32],
]);

$sorted = $collection->sortBy([
    ['name', 'asc'],
    ['age', 'desc'],
]);

$sorted->values()->all();

/*
    [
        ['name' => 'Abigail Otwell', 'age' => 32],
        ['name' => 'Abigail Otwell', 'age' => 30],
        ['name' => 'Taylor Otwell', 'age' => 36],
        ['name' => 'Taylor Otwell', 'age' => 34],
    ]
*/

Applied to the example from the question:

/*
$sorting_instructions = [
    ['column'=>'first_name', 'order'=>'asc'],
    ['column'=>'date_of_birth', 'order'=>'desc'],
];
*/

$collection = User::all(); 

$sortedCollection = $collection->sortBy([
    ['first_name','asc'],
    ['date_of_birth','desc'],
])
Air
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5

Whoever uses this, just keep in mind - you'll need to tweak it depending if your using collection of objects or associative arrays. Should be an easy tweak. Just change the $a[]/$b[] stuff to $a-> and $b->

    public static function multiPropertySort(Collection $collection, array $sorting_instructions){

        return $collection->sort(function ($a, $b) use ($sorting_instructions){

            //stuff starts here to answer question...

            foreach($sorting_instructions as $sorting_instruction){

                $a[$sorting_instruction['column']] = (isset($a[$sorting_instruction['column']])) ? $a[$sorting_instruction['column']] : '';
                $b[$sorting_instruction['column']] = (isset($b[$sorting_instruction['column']])) ? $b[$sorting_instruction['column']] : '';

                if(empty($sorting_instruction['order']) or strtolower($sorting_instruction['order']) == 'asc'){
                    $x = ($a[$sorting_instruction['column']] <=> $b[$sorting_instruction['column']]);
                }else{
                    $x = ($b[$sorting_instruction['column']] <=> $a[$sorting_instruction['column']]);

                }

                if($x != 0){
                    return $x;
                }

            }

            return 0;

        })->values();
    }
Tarek Adam
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4

Simple as doing this:

return $this->items->sortBy([
   ['is_hidden', 'asc'],
   ['title', 'asc']
]);

Add those fields you want to order as an array with field name and direction.

:)

dbf
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Ezequiel Fernandez
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2

If you are using Eloquent to get your collection instance, It would be much better to use orderBy method in your query, especially if columns were indexed:

$sorting_insructions = [
    ['column'=>'first_name', 'order'=>'asc'],
    ['column'=>'date_of_birth', 'order'=>'desc'],
];

$collection = App\User::query();

foreach ($sorting_insructions as $value) {

    $collection->orderBy($value['column'], $value['order']);

}

$users = $collection->get();

EDIT Since the question was edited telling that sort should be used outside the query builder, I think chaining sortBy and sortByDesc in reverse order from $sorting_insructions gives the same result:

$collection = App\User::all();

$sorting_insructions = [
    ['column'=>'first_name', 'order'=>'asc'],
    ['column'=>'date_of_birth', 'order'=>'desc'],
];

for ($i = count($sorting_insructions) - 1; $i >= 0 ; $i--) { 

    extract($sorting_insructions[i]);

    if ( $order === 'asc') {
        $collection = $collection->sortBy( $column );
    } else {
        $collection = $collection->sortByDesc( $column );
    }

}
YouneL
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    I think this is a mysql job to order returned data, Why would I use your solution if Eloquent already offer me one ? – YouneL Nov 16 '17 at 00:58
  • Because the framing of the question is just a simplified hypothetical - my need is to sort collections. – Tarek Adam Nov 16 '17 at 01:03
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    There is a special cases when we want to use `sort` method especially when we create collections manually **OR** when we merge 2 collections results, But Your question starts by using the `all` method to generate a collection so what's the goal of using sort if I can use orderBy which is more fast. – YouneL Nov 16 '17 at 01:18
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    Dude... the actual situation in real life - was a collection of composite objects from various databases - the hypothetical framing here just makes it easy to read. The question is quite clearly about collections and you solution is quite clearly about query builders. – Tarek Adam Nov 16 '17 at 01:22
  • @TarekAdam I don't use static methods. Also, I have separated class for collection for each my model. `PostModel` + `PostCollection` Check it out https://gitlab.com/snippets/1682360 – Piterden Nov 16 '17 at 18:48
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    Won't your new solution just sort twice? Youll end up with a collection sorted by the second instruction. – Tarek Adam Nov 17 '17 at 11:53
0
public static function multiPropertySort(
    Collection $collection,
    array $rules
)
{
    return $collection->sort(
        function ($a, $b) use ($rules) {
            foreach($rules as $rule){
                $sortColumn = array_get($rule, 'column');

                array_set(
                    $a,
                    $sortColumn,
                    array_get($a, $sortColumn, '')
                );

                array_set(
                    $b,
                    $sortColumn,
                    array_get($b, $sortColumn, '')
                );

                if ($sortOrder = array_get($rule, 'order', 'asc')) {
                    $x = (array_get($a, $sortColumn) <=> array_get($b, $sortColumn));
                } else {
                    $x = (array_get($b, $sortColumn) <=> array_get($a, $sortColumn));
                }

                if ($x != 0) {
                    return $x;
                }
            }

            return 0;
        }
    );
}

Let's imagine something imperative...

Piterden
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