Slightly more advanced multiple sorting

[Tom.]

Hello, 

I was wondering if there is a simpler way of sorting like this using the API selector:

$items = $page->children("sort=title");
$featured = new PageArray();
$featured->add($items);
$items->prepend($featured->filter("featured=1")->sort("timeon"));

Basically I'm wanting anything that's featured to filter by the time the artist is playing ("TimeOn") and for the rest to filter by title. I know above isn't exactly bloated, but I was just wondering if there is something simpler? Maybe a way of doing this inside the selector. 

This method is quite nice because ProcessWire automatically removes duplicates so it orders perfectly. 

[arjen]

You can sort multiple like this:

$page->children("featured=1, sort=title, sort=timeon");

[szabesz]

It seems to be covered by the docs:

https://processwire.com/api/selectors/#sort

[Tom.]

You can sort multiple like this:

$page->children("featured=1, sort=title, sort=timeon");

Sorry maybe I wasn't clear: 

Any child that is featured=1 will be sorted by the time they are on, and any child that isn't featured will be ordered alphabetically. 

[LostKobrakai]

That's not possible in a single selector. Sort order can only be 'hierarchical' for the whole result set and not different for just a subset.

[Robin S]

I was wondering if there is a simpler way of sorting like this using the API selector:

$items = $page->children("sort=title");
$featured = new PageArray();
$featured->add($items);
$items->prepend($featured->filter("featured=1")->sort("timeon"));

I doubt it makes much (or any) difference in terms of performance but you can do the same a bit more briefly like this:

$items = $page->children("sort=title");
$items->prepend($items->find("featured=1, sort=timeon"));

[LostKobrakai]

There shouldn't be any difference as both are essentially the same. find() does internally create a new PageArray anyways.