Jq: JSON Stream Processor

Overview

jq filters run on a stream of JSON data. The input to jq is parsed as a sequence of whitespace-separated JSON values which are passed through the provided filter one at a time. The output(s) of the filter are written to standard output, as a sequence of newline-separated JSON data.

Cheat Sheet

Parsing JSON response

response=$(cat << EOF
{
  "name": "John",
  "age": 30,
  "items": [
    "Sword",
    "Shield"
  ]
}
EOF
)

echo "${response}" | jq -M -r ".name" (1) (2)
echo "${response}" | jq -M -r ".items.[]" (3)
echo "${response}" | jq -M -r ".items.[1]" (4)

1	`-M` disables colored output, `-r` outputs strings without escaped and quotes.
2	Outputs `John`.
3	Outputs `Sword` and `Shield` delimited by new line.
4	Outputs `Shield`.