<?php

  function array_msort($array, $cols)
  {
    // clean cols
    $cols = (array) $cols;
    foreach ($cols as $col => $order) {
      if (is_int($col)) {
        // unassociative array.
        $cols[$order] = SORT_ASC;
        unset($cols[$col]);
      }
    }

    $colarr = array();
    foreach ($cols as $col => $order) {
      $colarr[$col] = array();
      foreach ($array as $k => $row) { $colarr[$col]['_'.$k] = strtolower($row[$col]); }
    }
    $params = array();
    foreach ($cols as $col => $order) {
      $params[] =& $colarr[$col];
      foreach ((array) $order as $i=> $orderArg)
      {
        $uniqueFlag = $col.'_'.$i.'_flag';
        $$uniqueFlag = $orderArg;
        $params[] = &$$uniqueFlag;
      }
    }

    call_user_func_array('array_multisort', $params);
    $sorted = array();
    $keys = array();
    $first = true;
    foreach ($colarr as $col => $arr) {
      foreach ($arr as $k => $v) {
        if ($first) { $keys[$k] = substr($k,1); }
        $k = $keys[$k];
        if (!isset($sorted[$k])) $sorted[$k] = $array[$k];
        $sorted[$k][$col] = $array[$k][$col];
      }
      $first = false;
    }
    $array = $sorted;
    return $array;
  }