How do I sort a multi-dimensional array by time values in PHP? -

i'm doing school project , have multi-dimensional array having start_time , end_time of courses.

i sorted array day, want sort array time. such lowest start_time first element of array.

this how array @ moment:

array (         [0] => array (                       [courseid] => comp345                      [lectureid] => ss                      [day] => monday                      [stime] => 18:20                       [etime] => 20:30                       [term] => winter                       [year] => 2014                )        [1] => array (                       [courseid] => comp275                       [lectureid] => gg                       [day] => monday                       [stime] => 12:15                       [etime] => 15:16                       [term] => winter                       [year] => 2014               ) ) 

i wondering if there pre-defined functions or if need create new specific function task .

i can access values of start_time :

foreach ($array $element) {   $start_time = (substr($element['stime'], 0, 5)); } 

this return time in format : 08:20

it works same way normal numbers when comparing such :

08:20 < 10:15 = true

08:20 > 10:15 = false

php >= 5.5.0:

array_multisort(array_map('strtotime', array_column($array, 'stime')), sort_asc, $array); 

php < 5.5.0:

foreach ($array $k => $v) {   $stime[$k] = strtotime($v['stime']); } array_multisort($stime, sort_asc, $array);