how to sort a json array by key value

I have some json objects which look like this:

{
    "name": "Jan",
    "contracthours": 20,
    "overtimehours": 5,
    "extrahours": 4,
    "category": "Cleaning",
    "bgcolor": "#2ECC40",
    "textcolor": "#ffffff"
}

The key category can have 6 different values: Manager, Assistant, Frontoffice, Flexworker, Cleaning, & Other.
How can I sort the array of json files in this order?

1. Manager
2. Assistant
3. Flexworker
4. Cleaning
5. Frontoffice
6. Other

This is the code I have so far:

$s_files = glob("data/staff/*.json"); // all staff json files
foreach($s_files as $s_file) {
    $s_array[] = json_decode(file_get_contents($s_file), true);
}

foreach($s_array as $key => $val) {
   echo $val['name'].'<br />';
   echo $val['category'].'<br />'; // Manager should be first, Assistant second and so on...
    ...

>Solution :

You would do that with usort() and feed in a custom sorting order with use. Sample code:

// Here is your sorting order:

$sorts = [  
    'Manager' => 1,
    'Assistant' => 2,
    'Flexworker' => 3,
    'Cleaning' => 4,
    'Frontoffice' => 5,
    'Other' => 6
];

// This is representative data:

$employees = [
    ['name' => 'Jan', 'category' => 'Cleaning'],
    ['name' => 'Jane', 'category' => 'Manager'],
    ['name' => 'Jano', 'category' => 'Assistant'],
    ['name' => 'Janu', 'category' => 'Assistant'],
    ['name' => 'Janx', 'category' => 'Flexworker'],
    ['name' => 'Janny', 'category' => 'Frontoffice'],
    ['name' => 'Jando', 'category' => 'Other'],
    ['name' => 'Jansan', 'category' => 'Manager'],
];

// Here we lookup the sorting values for each category:

usort($employees, function($a, $b) use ($sorts) {
    return $sorts[$a['category']] <=> $sorts[$b['category']];
});

Read the comments to understand. Then see the sample code in action.

You’d want to have a check to ensure all employees fit into your assumed categories (before the sort routine); and assign "Other" (or throw an exception) wherever there’s an unexpected role.