The goal is to sort the bill rates array by the percentage while maintaining the original json object.

[{
    "id": 2,
    "employee_observations": [{
        "id": 1,
        "bill_rates": [{
                "bill_classification": "Lawn Mowing",
                "percentage": 0.672399672399672
            },
            {
                "bill_classification": "Trimming",
                "percentage": 0.00163800163800164
            },
            {
                "bill_classification": "Snow Removal",
                "percentage": 0.630630630630631
            },
            {
                "bill_classification": "Rock Removal",
                "percentage": 0.00163800163800164
            }
        ]
    }]
}]

Output expected

[{
    "id": 2,
    "employee_observations": [{
        "id": 1,
        "bill_rates": [
            {
                "bill_classification": "Lawn Mowing",
                "percentage": 0.672399672399672
            },
            {
                "bill_classification": "Snow Removal",
                "percentage": 0.630630630630631
            },
            {
                "bill_classification": "Rock Removal",
                "percentage": 0.00163800163800164
            },
            {
                "bill_classification": "Trimming",
                "percentage": 0.00163800163800164
            }
        ]
    }]
}]

If I break it out by itself I can get to the expected result but haven't found the right combo to keep the format intact in the nested version above.

[
  {
    "activity_classification": "Lawn Mowing",
    "percentage": 0.672399672399672
  },
  {
    "activity_classification": "Trimming",
    "percentage": 0.00163800163800164
  },
  {
    "activity_classification": "Snow Removal",
    "percentage": 0.630630630630631
  },
  {
    "activity_classification": "Rock Removal",
    "percentage": 0.00163800163800164
  }
]

jq 'sort_by(.activity_percentage) | reverse' - Results

[
  {
    "activity_classification": "Lawn Mowing",
    "percentage": 0.672399672399672
  },
  {
    "activity_classification": "Snow Removal",
    "percentage": 0.630630630630631
  },
  {
    "activity_classification": "Rock Removal",
    "percentage": 0.00163800163800164
  },
  {
    "activity_classification": "Trimming",
    "percentage": 0.00163800163800164
  }
]

CodePudding user response：

Use the update operator |= to preserve the overall structure, and a negative comparison value -.percentage to sort in descending order:

jq '.[].employee_observations[].bill_rates |= sort_by(-.percentage)'

[
  {
    "id": 2,
    "employee_observations": [
      {
        "id": 1,
        "bill_rates": [
          {
            "bill_classification": "Lawn Mowing",
            "percentage": 0.672399672399672
          },
          {
            "detection_classification": "Snow Removal",
            "percentage": 0.630630630630631
          },
          {
            "detection_classification": "Trimming",
            "percentage": 0.00163800163800164
          },
          {
            "detection_classification": "Rock Removal",
            "percentage": 0.00163800163800164
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
]

Demo