Sort Eloquent Collection by created_at

Question

I have a table named 'posts' with the columns: 'post_id int primary increments', 'poster_id int' and 'status text' as well as an array named friends with the columns: 'user_id int primary' and 'friend_ids text'. I need to grab all the IDs in the friends text column which is easy enough using: ``` $friends = explode(',', \Friend::where('user_id', \Sentry::getUser()->id)->first()->friend_ids); ``` Where the data in the text column would look like '1,2,3,' etc. Then I create an Eloquent Collection object which is also easily done via: ``` $posts = new \Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Collection(); ``` But the problem is I can't figure out how to populate the collection and sort its contents by the Post object's 'created_at' column. This is what I have at the moment: ``` foreach ($friends as $id) { $posts_ = \Post::where('poster_id', $id)->getQuery() ->orderBy('created_at', 'desc') ->get(); foreach($posts_ as $post) { $posts->add($post); } } ``` I can't figure out if this code would work or…

Accepted Answer

If you want to sort a `collection` you can use the `sortBy` method by given key

```
$sorted = $posts->sortBy('created_at');
```

Also you can apply a callback function on the `collection`

```
$sorted = $posts->sortBy(function($post)
{
  return $post->created_at;
});
```

Hope this helps. For more information on `collections` you can read the docs

Sort Eloquent Collection by created_at

Solution

Problem