2

I'm using several keys from a long javascript object, represented as json. Example:

...
"stock": {
  "type": 'str',
  "properties": {
    "warehouse": {
      "type": 123
    },
    "retail": {
      "type": false
    }
  }
}
...

I would like to know the full path of, for instance, the key type. Something like get-paht type obtaining root.somethingElse.stock.properties.retail.type without having to do it manually. This is a long file, and searching up and down doesn't seem productive...

Cli or Gui tools tools are fine. However I can't find any application, extension or command-line tool that returns that.

I tried "JsonView" for Chrome but I couldn't make it load a local file.

jq Also doesn't seem to solve this, since there are some missing double quotes.

EDIT: I realized this was a js object, although represented as json.

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  • 2
    Repair it to proper JSON first, then use jq. Commented Feb 3, 2017 at 10:50
  • @SatoKatsura: I just edited the question. I hadn't realize this is a js object. Commented Feb 3, 2017 at 11:32

1 Answer 1

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Starting with a correctly formed and complete MWE :

{
  "stock": {
    "type": "str",
    "properties": {
      "warehouse": {
        "type": 123
      },
      "retail": {
        "type": false
      }
    }
  }
}

Then using jq (v1.5):

$ jq -M -c 'path(..|.type? // empty) | join(".")' mwe.json
"stock.type"
"stock.properties.warehouse.type"

(add -r to omit quoting on output, -M and -c are for formatting output only). This recurses down the structure (..) looking for an index or key of "type", suppresses errors (?) when that's not appropriate, and evaluating as "empty" (//) when the value is false or null, then flattens (join()) the path array.

A possible problem is that a false value (or null) triggers empty (at least in v1.5, but not in v1.4) and the stock.properties.retail.type item is omitted.

Without the | join(".") you will get JSON arrays, which may also be useful:

["stock","type"]
["stock","properties","warehouse","type"]

A more complex version, including the values:

$ jq -M -c '[paths(.|select(type=="object" and has("type")) )][] \
            as $path | [$path+["type"], getpath($path + ["type"])]' mwe.json  
[["stock","type"],"str"]
[["stock","properties","warehouse","type"],123]
[["stock","properties","retail","type"],false]

This is a little more elegant, it creates an array by selecting all of the objects which have a "type" child, then prints the path to "type" and its value.

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