He has a point, though. To have some of the functionality of jq inside Bash may be very useful. If he can supply a patch, why not? Philip Orleans
On Sun, Aug 28, 2022, 3:22 PM John Passaro <john.a.pass...@gmail.com> wrote: > interfacing with an external tool absolutely seems like the correct answer > to me. a fact worth mentioning to back that up is that `jq` exists. billed > as a sed/awk for json, it fills all the functions you'd expect such an > external tool to have and many many more. interfacing from curl to jq to > bash is something i do on a near daily basis. > > https://stedolan.github.io/jq/ > > On Sun, Aug 28, 2022, 09:25 Yair Lenga <yair.le...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > Over the last few years, JSON data becomes a integral part of processing. > > In many cases, I find myself having to automate tasks that require > > inspection of JSON response, and in few cases, construction of JSON. So > > far, I've taken one of two approaches: > > * For simple parsing, using 'jq' to extract elements of the JSON > > * For more complex tasks, switching to python or Javascript. > > > > Wanted to get feedback about the following "extensions" to bash that will > > make it easier to work with simple JSON object. To emphasize, the goal is > > NOT to "compete" with Python/Javascript (and other full scale language) - > > just to make it easier to build bash scripts that cover the very common > use > > case of submitting REST requests with curl (checking results, etc), and > to > > perform simple processing of JSON files. > > > > Proposal: > > * Minimal - Lightweight "json parser" that will convert JSON files to > bash > > associative array (see below) > > * Convert bash associative array to JSON > > > > To the extent possible, prefer to borrow from jsonpath syntax. > > > > Parsing JSON into an associative array. > > > > Consider the following, showing all possible JSON values (boolean, > number, > > string, object and array). > > { > > "b": false, > > "n": 10.2, > > "s: "foobar", > > x: null, > > "o" : { "n": 10.2, "s: "xyz" }, > > "a": [ > > { "n": 10.2, "s: "abc", x: false }, > > { "n": 10.2, "s": "def" x: true}, > > ], > > } > > > > This should be converted into the following array: > > > > ------------------------------------- > > > > # Top level > > [_length] = 6 # Number of keys in object/array > > [_keys] = b n s x o a # Direct keys > > [b] = false > > [n] = 10.2 > > [s] = foobar > > [x] = null > > > > # This is object 'o' > > [o._length] = 2 > > [o._keys] = n s > > [o.n] = 10.2 > > [o.s] = xyz > > > > # Array 'a' > > [a._count] = 2 # Number of elements in array > > > > # Element a[0] (object) > > [a.0._length] = 3 > > [a.0._keys] = n s x > > [a.0.n] = 10.2 > > [a.0.s] = abc > > [a.0_x] = false > > > > ------------------------------------- > > > > I hope that example above is sufficient. There are few other items that > are > > worth exploring - e.g., how to store the type (specifically, separate the > > quoted strings vs value so that "5.2" is different than 5.2, and "null" > is > > different from null. > > > > I will leave the second part to a different post, once I have some > > feedback. I have some prototype that i've written in python - POC - that > > make it possible to write things like > > > > declare -a foo > > curl http://www.api.com/weather/US/10013 | readjson foo > > > > printf "temperature(F) : %.1f Wind(MPH)=%d" ${foo[temp_f]}, ${foo[wind]} > > > > Yair > > >
