How to do Doctrine2 calculated fields ordering - doctrine-orm

Question

I've got the following doctrine2 query working nicely, it retrieves all 'markers' within some geographical radius.
$qb->select('marker')
->from('SndSpecialistLocator\Entity\Marker', 'marker')
->where('DISTANCE(marker.location, POINT_STR(:point)) < :distance')
->setParameter('point', $point)
->setParameter('distance', $radius);
Now I want to sort them by distance.
$qb->select('marker (DISTANCE(marker.location, POINT_STR(:point))) AS distance')
->from('SndSpecialistLocator\Entity\Marker', 'marker')
->where('DISTANCE(marker.location, POINT_STR(:point)) < :distance')
->setParameter('point', $point)
->orderBy('distance', 'DESC')
->setParameter('distance', $radius);
But unfortunately this does not work, I am wondering is this possible as distance is not a real property of my entity, but a calculated one?
What is the trick here?

Answer 1

Alternatively, try using HIDDEN in your call to select() :
$qb->select('m as marker, (DISTANCE(m.location, POINT_STR(:point))) as HIDDEN distance')
// note HIDDEN added here --->------->------->------->------->------->---^
->from('SndSpecialistLocator\Entity\Marker', 'm')
->where('DISTANCE(m.location, POINT_STR(:point)) < :distance')
->setParameter('point', $point)
->orderBy('distance', 'ASC')
->setParameter('distance', $radius)
->setMaxResults(5);
$query = $qb->getQuery();
$result = $query->execute();
Adding HIDDEN to the SELECT clause hides it from the results but allows it to be used in the orderby clause. Your $result should then contain the objects you want without having to do the extra array_walk.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, ordering by aliases is not possible.
What you can do* instead is to manually repeat the function in your orderBy statement:
$qb->select('marker (DISTANCE(marker.location, POINT_STR(:point))) AS distance')
->from('SndSpecialistLocator\Entity\Marker', 'marker')
->where('DISTANCE(marker.location, POINT_STR(:point)) < :distance')
->setParameter('point', $point)
->orderBy('DISTANCE(marker.location, POINT_STR(:point))', 'DESC')
->setParameter('distance', $radius);
*We will probably all end up in dev-hell for stepping off the holy path of DRY

Answer 3

Found the solution.
$qb->select('m as marker, (DISTANCE(m.location, POINT_STR(:point))) as distance')
->from('SndSpecialistLocator\Entity\Marker', 'm')
->where('DISTANCE(m.location, POINT_STR(:point)) < :distance')
->setParameter('point', $point)
->orderBy('distance', 'ASC')
->setParameter('distance', $radius)
->setMaxResults(5);
$query = $qb->getQuery();
$result = $query->execute();
/**
* Convert the resulting associative array into one containing only the entity objects
*
* array (size=5)
* 0 =>
* array (size=2)
* 'marker' =>
* object(SndSpecialistLocator\Entity\Marker)[647]
* protected 'id' => int 43
* protected 'title' => string 'c5d07acdd47efbe38a6d0bf4ec64f333' (length=32)
* private 'location' =>
* object(SndSpecialistLocator\Orm\Point)[636]
* private 'lat' => float 52.2897
* private 'lng' => float 4.84268
* 'distance' => string '0.0760756823433058' (length=18)
* 1 => ...
*
* array (size=5)
* 0 =>
* object(SndSpecialistLocator\Entity\Marker)[647]
* protected 'id' => int 43
* protected 'title' => string 'c5d07acdd47efbe38a6d0bf4ec64f333' (length=32)
* private 'location' =>
* object(SndSpecialistLocator\Orm\Point)[636]
* private 'lat' => float 52.2897
* private 'lng' => float 4.84268
* 1 => ...
*
*/
array_walk($result, function (&$item, $key)
{
$item = $item['marker'];
});