这个解决方案适用于usort()，具有易于记忆的多维排序符号。使用了飞船操作符<=>，该操作符可从PHP 7获得。

usort($in,function($a,$b){
  return $a['first']   <=> $b['first']  //first asc
      ?: $a['second']  <=> $b['second'] //second asc
      ?: $b['third']   <=> $a['third']  //third desc (a b swapped!)
      //etc
  ;
});

例子:

$in = [
  ['firstname' => 'Anton', 'surname' => 'Gruber', 'birthdate' => '03.08.1967', 'rank' => 3],
  ['firstname' => 'Anna', 'surname' => 'Egger', 'birthdate' => '04.01.1960', 'rank' => 1],
  ['firstname' => 'Paul', 'surname' => 'Mueller', 'birthdate' => '15.10.1971', 'rank' => 2],
  ['firstname' => 'Marie', 'surname' => 'Schmidt ', 'birthdate' => '24.12.1963', 'rank' => 2],
  ['firstname' => 'Emma', 'surname' => 'Mueller', 'birthdate' => '23.11.1969', 'rank' => 2],
];

第一个任务:按等级asc，姓asc排序

usort($in,function($a,$b){
  return $a['rank']      <=> $b['rank']     //first asc
      ?: $a['surname']   <=> $b['surname']  //second asc
  ;
});

第二项任务:按等级，姓，名排序

usort($in,function($a,$b){
  return $b['rank']      <=> $a['rank']       //first desc
      ?: $a['surname']   <=> $b['surname']    //second asc
      ?: $a['firstname'] <=> $b['firstname']  //third asc
  ;
});

第三个任务:按级别desc，出生日期asc排序

日期不能用这种表示法排序。使用strtotime进行转换。

usort($in,function($a,$b){
  return $b['rank']      <=> $a['rank']       //first desc
      ?: strtotime($a['birthdate']) <=> strtotime($b['birthdate'])    //second asc
  ;
});

如果有人需要根据键进行排序，最好是使用下面的方法:

usort($array, build_sorter('order'));

function build_sorter($key) {
   return function ($a, $b) use ($key) {
      return strnatcmp($a[$key], $b[$key]);
   };
}

function aasort (&$array, $key) {
    $sorter = array();
    $ret = array();
    reset($array);
    foreach ($array as $ii => $va) {
        $sorter[$ii] = $va[$key];
    }
    asort($sorter);
    foreach ($sorter as $ii => $va) {
        $ret[$ii] = $array[$ii];
    }
    $array = $ret;
}

aasort($your_array, "order");

PHP 7.4及以上版本的“箭头函数”语法:

uasort($yourArray, fn($a, $b) => $a['order'] <=> $b['order']);

漂亮的打印

echo '<pre>';
print_r($yourArray);

使用array_multisort()， array_map()

array_multisort(array_map(function($element) {
      return $element['order'];
  }, $array), SORT_ASC, $array);

print_r($array);

DEMO

$sort = array();
$array_lowercase = array_map('strtolower', $array_to_be_sorted);
array_multisort($array_lowercase, SORT_ASC, SORT_STRING, $alphabetically_ordered_array);

这可以同时考虑大写字母和小写字母。