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1

I have a JSON output that contains a list of objects stored in a variable. (I may not be phrasing that right)

[
  {
    "item1": "value1",
    "item2": "value2",
    "sub items": [
      {
        "subitem": "subvalue"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "item1": "value1_2",
    "item2": "value2_2",
    "sub items_2": [
      {
        "subitem_2": "subvalue_2"
      }
    ]
  }
]

I need all the values for item2 in a array for a bash script to be run on ubuntu 14.04.1.

I have found a bunch of ways to get the entire result into an array but not just the items I need

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2 Answers 2

up vote 1 down vote accepted

Using :

$ cat json
[
  {
    "item1": "value1",
    "item2": "value2",
    "sub items": [
      {
        "subitem": "subvalue"
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "item1": "value1_2",
    "item2": "value2_2",
    "sub items_2": [
      {
        "subitem_2": "subvalue_2"
      }
    ]
  }
]

CODE:

arr=( $(jq -r '.[].item2' json) )
printf '%s\n' "${arr[@]}"

OUTPUT:

value2
value2_2
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Is it possible to do this from a variable instead of a file? I try to avoid excess filesystem access if I don't need it. Once I pull this array I am done with the json output. –  JpaytonWPD Jan 7 at 0:10
    
Have you tried something ? –  StardustOne Jan 7 at 0:13
    
I tried replacing json with $JSON but jq is only looking for files. The json output is from a API call gathered with curl. Your answer does work if I store the output in a file. I was just hoping to avoid it. –  JpaytonWPD Jan 7 at 0:17
    
I also looked through the jq manual but theres nothing helpful. Could I pipe it through jq? –  JpaytonWPD Jan 7 at 0:22
1  
Missing parentheses : arr=( $(...) ) –  StardustOne Jan 7 at 0:35
up vote 0 down vote

Thanks to sputnick I got to this:

arr=( $(curl -k https://localhost/api | jq -r '.[].item2') )

The JSON I have is the output from an API. All I needed to do wans remove the file argument and pipe | the output of curl to jq. Works great and saved some steps.

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