PHP sorting a multidimensional array from JSON -

php multidimensional array sorting bit confusing me.

what have array formed json_decode() .jsonp file.

it has several variables in each primary array entry. include "year", "month", "day", "hourtimestart", , "minutetimestart", along other information.

i'd sort array date, i'd first sort "minutetimestart", "hourtimestart", "day", "month", "year", they're in chronological order.

the array looks this:

array (  [0] => array ( [year] => 2013 [month] => february [day] => 5 [hourtimestart] => 5 [minutetimestart] => 0 [name] => tht )  [1] => array ( [year] => 2013 [month] => january [day] => 6 [hourtimestart] => 2 [minutetimestart] => 0 [name] => gregre)  [2] => array ( [year] => 2013 [month] => march [day] => 4 [hourtimestart] => 1 [minutetimestart] => 15 [name] => gregre) ) 

essentially i'm doing this:

$databasefileurl = "../appointments/allappointmentdata.jsonp";     if(file_exists($databasefileurl)){         $jsonappointmentdata = file_get_contents($databasefileurl);     } else $jsonappointmentdata = "";     $appointmentdata = json_decode($jsonappointmentdata, true); 

then want sort $appointmentdata date indicated in each sub-array

you can use usort() provide custom comparison function, , mktime() build time (in seconds since epoch) month, day, year, hour, minute parameters.

something solve problem:

    function mydatesort($ar1, $ar2)     {        $month1 = //todo: convert $ar1['month'] string corresponding month number        $date1 = mktime($ar1['hourtimestart'], $ar1['minutetimestart'], 0,  $month1, $ar1['day'], $ar1['year'] );         $month2 = //todo: convert $ar2['month'] string corresponding month number        $date2 = mktime($ar2['hourtimestart'], $ar2['minutetimestart'], 0,  $month2, $ar2['day'], $ar2['year'] );         //this sort ascending, change $date2 - $date1 descending        return $date1 - $date2;     } 

then do:

usort($appointmentdata, "mydatesort");