Parsing JSON in shell script with regex

Question

I need to parse the jsonarray by using regex. My json is

"keys": [
      {
        "host": "example.com"       
      },
      {
        "host": "example.net"
      }
    ]

I need to get the two hosts values.

If it were proper json (e.g., wrapped in {}); you could use jq -r '.keys[] | .host' — jfs
– jfs, Commented May 30, 2013 at 16:05

Fred Foo · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-21 10:40:03Z

10

When you want to extract text, grep is your friend:

grep -Po '(?<="host": ")[^"]*' myjsonFile

For example:

kent$  echo '"keys": [
      {
        "host": "example.com"       
      },
      {
        "host": "example.net"
      }
    ]'|grep -Po '(?<="host": ")[^"]*'

example.com
example.net

edited May 21, 2014 at 10:40

Fred Foo

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answered Dec 17, 2012 at 11:17

Kent

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2 Comments

Sławosz Over a year ago

Could you add more explanation to this anwser?

Kent Over a year ago

@Andy it needs gnu grep.

Justin McDonald · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-17 11:15:42Z

1

The following regex will grab your host values using a non-greedy kleene wildcard:

/"host":\s"(.*?)"/

answered Dec 17, 2012 at 11:15

Justin McDonald

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