how to sort array date wise in cakephp - arrays

Question

I have 2 table booking and message , now I want to show booking request and message in inbox at a time.
$this->paginate = array(
'conditions' => $conditions,'limit' =>10,
'order'=>array('Booking.created'=>'DESC'));
$bookings = $this->paginate('Booking');
$this->paginate = array(
'conditions' => $conditions,'limit' =>10,
'order'=>array('MessageDetail.created'=>'DESC'));
$messages = $this->paginate('MessageDetail');
i have merge both table data ( array_merge($bookings, $messages); )
now i want to it sort date wise (or any conditions)
Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[Booking] => Array
(
[id] => 4
[host_id] => 21
[place_id] => 10
[room_id] => 13
[user_id] => 12
[message_detail_id] => 16
[created] => 2013-04-23 14:44:03
[accept_date] =>
[cancel_date] =>
)
)
[1] => Array
(
[Booking] => Array
(
[id] => 3
[host_id] => 21
[place_id] => 10
[room_id] => 13
[user_id] => 12
[message_detail_id] => 13
[created] => 2013-04-15 14:10:59
[accept_date] => 2013-04-15 14:40:47
[cancel_date] =>
)
)
[2] => Array
(
[MessageDetail] => Array
(
[id] => 17
[message_id] => 2
[user_id] => 12
[sender_id] => 21
[unread] => 0
[created] => 2013-04-24 12:11:47
)
)
[3] => Array
(
[MessageDetail] => Array
(
[id] => 15
[message_id] => 2
[user_id] => 12
[sender_id] => 21
[booking_id] => 3
[unread] => 0
[created] => 2013-04-15 15:01:12
)
)
)
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Option #1:
Create a third Model named "BookingAndMessage". You could use the Model's afterSave method (on both Booking and Message) to create a duplicate record in your new model. You could then query the BookingAndMessage in the proper sort order.
Option #2: To solve the problem, as it stands, you will want to use PHP's usort function (also explained here PHP Sort a multidimensional array by element containing date).
<?php
$BookingsAndMessages = array_merge($bookings, $messages);
function date_compare($a, $b)
{
$modelKeyA = array_key_exists('Booking',$a) ? 'Booking' : 'MessageDetail';
$modelKeyB = array_key_exists('Booking',$b) ? 'Booking' : 'MessageDetail';
$t1 = strtotime($a[$modelKeyA]['created']);
$t2 = strtotime($b[$modelKeyB]['created']);
return $t1 - $t2;
}
usort($BookingsAndMessages, 'date_compare');
// Would sort the merged records by `created` date
?>
The downside to option 2 is, you are going to have to create rules for each field (and sort direction).

Answer 2

Perhaps you should Union your queries first, the Order.
$bookings = $this->Bookings->find('all', [
'conditions' => $conditions,'limit' =>10,
]);
$messages = $this->find('all', [
'conditions' => $conditions,'limit' =>10
]);
$data = $bookings->union($messages);
// This works if your first selected field is the one you want to sort.
$data->epilog('ORDER BY 1 ASC');
reference:
How do you modify a UNION query in CakePHP 3?