Iterate over JSON array using bash jq

Question

I'd like to iterate over an array inside a JSON file by index using bash jq, and get for example only the name from each object inside that array:

{
  "items": [
    {
      "name": "item1",
      "year": "2021"
    },
    {
      "name": "item2",
      "year": "2020"
    }
  ]
}

Any ideas on how to achieve something like this?

item1name=`jq '.items'<???????> object.json | sed "s/\"//g"`

jq is not part of bash.

chepner
– chepner

2021-12-06 18:00:52 +00:00
Commented Dec 6, 2021 at 18:00 — chepner
– chepner, Commented Dec 6, 2021 at 18:00

Barbaros Özhan · Accepted Answer · 2021-12-06 17:55:50Z

1

You can use

jq -r '.items[] | .name' object.json

where -r option is used to remove double quotes wrapping up the name values.

Demo

edited Dec 6, 2021 at 17:55

answered Dec 6, 2021 at 17:52

Barbaros Özhan

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3 Comments

ca5p3r Over a year ago

Thank you! Is there any way that I can save this array of names which I can then use dynamically by using an index of somehow?

ca5p3r Over a year ago

After Googling for Bash arrays, I came across this approach to iterate over arrays: for i in ${!names[@]}; do printf "${names[$i]}" printf "\n" done

glenn jackman Over a year ago

Use the bash readarray command to capture the lines of output from jq into a bash array. readarray -t names < <(jq -r ...)

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