Grouping PHP Array on 2 or more different values

Question

I'm creating a recent activity section and I am trying to group similar items. I want to be able to group activities based on type of activity and who did the activity. For instance:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [user] => Bill
            [type] => photo
            [id] => 1
            [timestamp] => 12345678
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [user] => Joe
            [type] => photo
            [id] => 2
            [timestamp] => 12345678
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [user] => Bill
            [type] => comment
            [id] => 1
            [timestamp] => 12345678
        )

    [3] => Array
        (
            [user] => Bill
            [type] => photo
            [id] => 3
            [timestamp] => 12345678
        )

)

could turn into this:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [user] => Bill
            [type] => photo
            [items] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [id] => 1
                            [timestamp] => 12345678
                        )

                    [1] => Array
                        (
                            [id] => 3
                            [timestamp] => 12345678
                        )

                )

        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [user] => Joe
            [type] => photo
            [items] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [id] => 2
                            [timestamp] => 12345678
                        )

                )

        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [user] => Bill
            [type] => comment
            [items] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [id] => 1
                            [timestamp] => 12345678
                        )

                )

        )

)

This is almost what I am trying to do but not quite there: Grouping arrays in PHP

Anyone have an idea?

profitphp · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-20 23:21:42Z

1

Your grouping doesn't exactly make sense (it makes a little more sense after your edit), try this:

foreach ($activity as $data) {
   $newdata[$data['user']][$data['type']]['id'][]=$data['id'];
   $newdata[$data['user']][$data['type']]['timestamp'][]=$data['timestamp'];
}

Edit to reflect your changes in desired output: (and a structure that is a bit more useful)

foreach ($activity as $data) {
    $newdata[$data['user']][$data['type']]['items'][]=array('id'=>$data['id'],'timestamp'=>$data['timestamp']);
}

Edit 2:

You have to have some sort of key, in this case its a combo of the username and the type. Then you have to re-index it so its numeric if that actually matters. That should be quite close to exactly what you want:

foreach ($activity as $data) {
        $key=$data['user'].'-'.$data['type'];
        $newdata[$key]['items'][]=array('id'=>$data['id'],'timestamp'=>$data['timestamp']);
        $newdata[$key]['user']=$data['user'];
        $newdata[$key]['type']=$data['type'];
}
$newdata=array_values($newdata);

tested:
http://www.ideone.com/3uZdd

Edit 3:

separate dates... this is the idea to get you started, you'll need to do a little more to the original array for this.

foreach ($activity as $data) {
        $key=$data['user'].'-'.$data['type'];
        $newdata[$key]['items'][$data['day']][]=array('id'=>$data['id'],'timestamp'=>$data['timestamp']);
        $newdata[$key]['user']=$data['user'];
        $newdata[$key]['type']=$data['type'];
}
$newdata=array_values($newdata);

edited Jul 20, 2011 at 23:21

answered Jul 20, 2011 at 21:10

profitphp

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9 Comments

nlyn Over a year ago

that's looking pretty good thanks. but it would be better for me to have each outputted action (after the grouping) to not be a child of it's user - basically more like my example.

nlyn Over a year ago

it will be output something like: * Bill added 2 Photos * Joe added photo number 1 * Bill wrote comment number 1

profitphp Over a year ago

@ndog updated again. Your data structure still doesn't make sense, but that's should do what you want.

profitphp Over a year ago

@ndog my last update had some issues, sorry, fixed now, tested, works just how you wanted it

nlyn Over a year ago

That looks awesome... now, what if I was to add another level of complexity to this... Only grouping activities in 24 hour blocks. So if Bill added a photo last week, then 2 today. todays would be grouped together and last weeks would be on it's own?

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