How to dynamically parse a JSON object with shell jq

Question

I got a question about shell's jq. So my JSON object is:

{"1543446000": {"name": "John", "company": "foo"}, "1543359600": {"name": "Kate", "company": "bar"}}

The numers 1543446000 and 1543359600 are UNIX timestamps. How can I parse one of the JSON objects by the timestamp with a shell variable?

My shell script so far:

#!/bin/sh
URL="https://pastebin.com/raw/w7awz7kZ"
export DATE=$(date -d "$today 0" +%s)
JSON=$(curl -H "Accept: application/json" $API_URL)
JSON=$(echo $JSON | jq --arg date $DATE '.$date')
echo $JSON

Doesn't seem to work. My intention is to select the inner JSON object described by one of the timestamps, which are basically midnight of today. So I want to select today's data set.

Any suggestions?

Greets, Innoberger

chepner · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-29 21:46:23Z

3

You need to use the full syntax for key access, as the dollar sign preclude you using the shorter form. The error message should provide this suggestion.

$ jq --arg date 1543359600 '.$date' tmp.json
jq: error: syntax error, unexpected '$' (Unix shell quoting issues?) at <top-level>, line 1:
.$date
jq: error: try .["field"] instead of .field for unusually named fields at <top-level>, line 1:
.$date
jq: 2 compile errors

Note the error message

'try .["field"] instead of .field'.

You won't need the quotes, though, as that would be how you specify a literal key $date.

$ jq --arg date 1543359600 '.[$date]' tmp.json
{
  "name": "Kate",
  "company": "bar"
}

edited Nov 29, 2018 at 21:46

answered Nov 29, 2018 at 21:44

chepner

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