Their syntax comparison under "So you like chocolate or vanilla?" is disingenuous. You can do variable assignment and array expansion in jq: expand_vals_into

Their syntax comparison under "So you like chocolate or vanilla?" is disingenuous. You can do variable assignment and array expansion in jq: expand_vals_into_independent_records=' .name as $name | .vals[] | { name: $name, val: . } ' echo '{"name":"foo","vals":[1,2,3]} {"name":"bar","vals":[4,5]}' | jq "$expand_vals_into_independent_records" Also, generally, not a fan of the tone of this article.