Bash: add object to a json file

Question

I know how to echo / add text to the end of a file:

echo "{ "fruit":"apple" , "amount":"10" }" >> file.txt

My question is how to add a object to the json file below:

the file - file.txt (empty):

{
"fruit": [

]
}

Expected result:

{
"fruit": [
{ "fruit":"apple" , "amount":"10" } #object to add

]
}

totally agree, but the my question is; how to add text to the 'middle' of a file with bash. In this case a json file. — Citizen SP
– Citizen SP, Commented Nov 11, 2012 at 18:49
What's the specification of where the object should be added? It can be done with sed, awk, perl, etc. but you need to define the problem in more detail. — Barmar
– Barmar, Commented Nov 11, 2012 at 18:52

gniourf_gniourf · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-11 18:52:52Z

6

ed is the standard text editor.

#!/bin/bash

{
ed -s file.json <<EOF
/\"fruit\": \[
a
{ "fruit":"apple" , "amount":"10" } #object to add
.
wq
EOF
} &> /dev/null

Don't know why you want to use bash for that, though, there are much better tools around!

Done.

answered Nov 11, 2012 at 18:52

gniourf_gniourf

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Comments

Olaf Dietsche · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-12 21:05:23Z

0

Try this one:

$ sed -e '/"fruit":/a{ "fruit":"apple" , "amount":"10" }' file.txt

This will add a line after "fruit". If you want to replace the file with the modified text:

$ sed -i.bak -e '/"fruit":/a{ "fruit":"apple" , "amount":"10" }' file.txt

will add the line and replace the file with the modified content. The old file will be saved as backup file.txt.bak.

answered Nov 12, 2012 at 21:05

Olaf Dietsche

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