How to save fetched rows from while loop into a new array?

Question

Let's say I have this loop in my header.php:

<div id="top-20">
    <h2 class="top-20-title">TOP 20 TEAMS</h2>

    <div class="top-20-content">

        <?php
            $params = array(
               'limit'   => -1 // get everything
            );

            $matches = pods( 'matches', $params );

            if ( 0 < $matches->total() ) {
                while ( $matches->fetch() ) {
            ?>

                 <?php echo $matches->field( 'winner_team' ); ?>
                 <br>

            <?php
                    } // end of while loop
                } // end of if any exists
            ?>

    </div><!-- /top-20-content -->  
</div><!-- /top-20 -->  

And this is what my simplified table looks like:

id | team_1 | team_2 | winner_team
--------------------------------
1  | 3      | 15     | 3
--------------------------------
2  | 20     | 8      | 8
--------------------------------
3  | 18     | 11     | 18
--------------------------------
4  | 8      | 7      | 8
--------------------------------
...

But I want instead of echoing inside while loop like

<?php echo $matches->field( 'winner_team' ); ?>

create a new array i.e. $matches_array which will contain 2 columns like id_new and winner_team_new and save the value of winner_team in winner_team_new instead of echoing it directly inside while loop.

Then I would like to loop this new created array $matches_array inside another while loop after groupby occurrences of winner_team_new and orderby them DESC.

So, I will get something like this:

8
3
18

instead of what I am currently getting when using echo in while loop:

3
8
18
8

Why I can not just do it inside sql? I need to be done using another array not using conditions in $params or sql array due to this bug: https://github.com/pods-framework/pods/issues/595 and the fact that pods framework is too complicated for my to make my own code adjustements into core so I would like to bypass this by working with an array that will be created from while loop.

So, what I need is to create an array and rearange the results based on occurrences of winner_team from the most to the less.

I have tried using

$matches_array = array_count_values(array_map($matches,array_keys($new_row)));

And then loop it in while loop but it is not working at all.

I need help with the count array/group by part.

I don't know practically anything about it.

I just guess that I need after grouping based on the same winner_team field create a new field e.g. wins where the number of occurrences for every team(based on winner_team) value will be stored. And then order that new array DESC.

Btw. all columns in the table are INTEGERS

EDIT 2: I have figured out how to store values from the while loop inside a new array called $matches_array and the code looks like this:

<div id="top-20">
    <h2 class="top-20-title">TOP 20 TEAMS</h2>

    <div class="top-20-content">

        <?php
            $params = array(
               'limit'   => -1 // get everything
            );

            $matches = pods( 'matches', $params );

            if ( 0 < $matches->total() ) {
                while ( $matches->fetch() ) {
            ?>

                 <?php // echo $matches->field( 'winner_team' ); ?>
                      <?php $row_array = $matches->field( 'winner_team' ); ?>
                      <?php $matches_array[]; ?>

                 <br>

            <?php
                    } // end of while loop
                } // end of if any exists
            ?>

    </div><!-- /top-20-content -->  
</div><!-- /top-20 -->

Now, I need probably do a foreach loop after a groupby(based on occureces of the numbers in winner_team field) and order the result before the output DESC.

Any advice how to do that?

Answer 1

The issue that initially kept you from sorting by an aliased column should be resolved. I've tested it with the initial scenario and it's doing exactly what it should. I think you can happily discard this attempted work-around.