jq cheatsheet

jq is a lightweight and flexible command-line JSON processor, it is also described as sed for JSON data: You can use it to slice and filter and map and transform structured data with the same ease

We’ll use below endpoint as example `https://reqres.in/api/users` which provides response in json format.

Beautify json

curl https://reqres.in/api/users | jq .

Sample output:

2. Print value of top level attribute

curl https://reqres.in/api/users | jq .page

output:

1

3. Print all items in top level array element data

curl 'https://reqres.in/api/users' | jq .data

output:

[
  {
    "id": 1,
    "email": "george.bluth@reqres.in",
    "first_name": "George",
    "last_name": "Bluth",
    "avatar": "https://reqres.in/img/faces/1-image.jpg"
  },
  {
    "id": 2,
    "email": "janet.weaver@reqres.in",
    "first_name": "Janet",
    "last_name": "Weaver",
    "avatar": "https://reqres.in/img/faces/2-image.jpg"
  },
  {
    "id": 3,
    "email": "emma.wong@reqres.in",
    "first_name": "Emma",
    "last_name": "Wong",
    "avatar": "https://reqres.in/img/faces/3-image.jpg"
  },
  {
    "id": 4,
    "email": "eve.holt@reqres.in",
    "first_name": "Eve",
    "last_name": "Holt",
    "avatar": "https://reqres.in/img/faces/4-image.jpg"
  },
  {
    "id": 5,
    "email": "charles.morris@reqres.in",
    "first_name": "Charles",
    "last_name": "Morris",
    "avatar": "https://reqres.in/img/faces/5-image.jpg"
  },
  {
    "id": 6,
    "email": "tracey.ramos@reqres.in",
    "first_name": "Tracey",
    "last_name": "Ramos",
    "avatar": "https://reqres.in/img/faces/6-image.jpg"
  }
]

4. Print key, values in array element data

curl 'https://reqres.in/api/users' | jq '.data[] | {first_name,last_name}'

output:

{
  "first_name": "George",
  "last_name": "Bluth"
}
{
  "first_name": "Janet",
  "last_name": "Weaver"
}
{
  "first_name": "Emma",
  "last_name": "Wong"
}
{
  "first_name": "Eve",
  "last_name": "Holt"
}
{
  "first_name": "Charles",
  "last_name": "Morris"
}
{
  "first_name": "Tracey",
  "last_name": "Ramos"
}

5. Print only values from array element data

curl 'https://reqres.in/api/users' | jq '.data[].first_name'

output:

"George"
"Janet"
"Emma"
"Eve"
"Charles"
"Tracey"

6. Print first_name and last_name as text instead of json

curl 'https://reqres.in/api/users' | jq '.data[] | {first_name,last_name} | join(" ")'

output:

"George Bluth"
"Janet Weaver"
"Emma Wong"
"Eve Holt"
"Charles Morris"
"Tracey Ramos"

7. Get all records for person with first_name Eve

curl 'https://reqres.in/api/users' | jq '.data[] | select(.first_name == "Eve")'

output:

{
  "id": 4,
  "email": "eve.holt@reqres.in",
  "first_name": "Eve",
  "last_name": "Holt",
  "avatar": "https://reqres.in/img/faces/4-image.jpg"
}

8. Get email of a person with first_name Eve

curl 'https://reqres.in/api/users' | jq '.data[] | select(.first_name == "Eve") | {email}'

output:

{
  "email": "eve.holt@reqres.in"
}

9. Extract all keys from json

curl 'https://reqres.in/api/users' | jq keys

output:

[
  "data",
  "page",
  "per_page",
  "support",
  "total",
  "total_pages"
]

10. Print range from array data

curl 'https://reqres.in/api/users' | jq '.data[1:3]'

output:

[
  {
    "id": 2,
    "email": "janet.weaver@reqres.in",
    "first_name": "Janet",
    "last_name": "Weaver",
    "avatar": "https://reqres.in/img/faces/2-image.jpg"
  },
  {
    "id": 3,
    "email": "emma.wong@reqres.in",
    "first_name": "Emma",
    "last_name": "Wong",
    "avatar": "https://reqres.in/img/faces/3-image.jpg"
  }
]

11. Sort array data by first_name

curl 'https://reqres.in/api/users' | jq '.data | sort_by(.first_name)'

output:

[
  {
    "id": 5,
    "email": "charles.morris@reqres.in",
    "first_name": "Charles",
    "last_name": "Morris",
    "avatar": "https://reqres.in/img/faces/5-image.jpg"
  },
  {
    "id": 3,
    "email": "emma.wong@reqres.in",
    "first_name": "Emma",
    "last_name": "Wong",
    "avatar": "https://reqres.in/img/faces/3-image.jpg"
  },
  {
    "id": 4,
    "email": "eve.holt@reqres.in",
    "first_name": "Eve",
    "last_name": "Holt",
    "avatar": "https://reqres.in/img/faces/4-image.jpg"
  },
  {
    "id": 1,
    "email": "george.bluth@reqres.in",
    "first_name": "George",
    "last_name": "Bluth",
    "avatar": "https://reqres.in/img/faces/1-image.jpg"
  },
  {
    "id": 2,
    "email": "janet.weaver@reqres.in",
    "first_name": "Janet",
    "last_name": "Weaver",
    "avatar": "https://reqres.in/img/faces/2-image.jpg"
  },
  {
    "id": 6,
    "email": "tracey.ramos@reqres.in",
    "first_name": "Tracey",
    "last_name": "Ramos",
    "avatar": "https://reqres.in/img/faces/6-image.jpg"
  }
]

12. Count elements in subscripted array data :

curl 'https://reqres.in/api/users' | jq '.data | length'

output:

6

Try these examples here as well json is pre-loaded.