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I applaud this project's focus on correctness and efficiency, but I'd also really like a version of `jq` that's easy to understand without having to learn a who

I applaud this project's focus on correctness and efficiency, but I'd also really like a version of `jq` that's easy to understand without having to learn a whole new syntax. `jq` is a really powerful tool and `jaq` promises to be even more powerful. But, as a system administrator, most lot of the time that I'm dealing with json files, something that behaved more like grep would be sufficient.

msluyter 3y ago
Obligatory reference to "gron" ("make JSON greppable"), which I find to be quite useful for many common tasks: https://github.com/tomnomnom/gron https://github.com/tomnomnom/gron
ishandotpage 3y ago
Have you tried `gron`? It converts your nested json into a line by line format which plays better with tools like `grep` From the project's README: ▶ gron "https://api.github.com/repos/tomnomnom/gron/commits?per_page=1 https://api.github.com/repos/tomnomnom/gron/commits?per_page..." | fgrep "commit.author" json[0].commit.author = {}; json[0].commit.author.date = "2016-07-02T10:51:21Z"; json[0].commit.author.email = "mail@tomnomnom.com"; json[0].commit.author.name = "Tom Hudson"; https://github.com/tomnomnom/gron https://github.com/tomnomnom/gron It was suggested to me in HN comments on an article I wrote about `jq`, and I have found myself using it a lot in my day to day workflow
- hu3 3y ago
  Thank you so much. This seems like a saner approach for some simpler use cases. It flattens the structure. And makes for easy diffing.
  - evntdrvn 3y ago
    There's also this awesome tool to make JSON interactively navigable in the terminal: https://fx.wtf https://fx.wtf
    - llimllib 3y ago
      https://jless.io/ https://jless.io/ is similar, and will give you jq selectors so the two combine very well. (fx might have that feature too, I dunno)
      - evntdrvn 3y ago
        Ah thanks, jless is actually the one I was originally thinking of and trying to find! :D
- sn0wf1re 3y ago
  You can also mimic gron, including support for yaml with yq -o=props my-file.yaml
  - majewsky 3y ago
    Doesn't work in my terminal. When you recommend yq behavior, please specify which yq you're using. There are at least two incompatible implementations.
- stronglikedan 3y ago
  This is awesome, thanks! Not OP, but this will help me to write specifications for modifying existing JSON structures immensely. It's kind of a pain parsing JSON by (old man) eye to figure out which properties are arrays, and follow property names down a chain. This will definitely help eliminate mistakes!
  - pdimitar 3y ago
    Also try jless[0], it's amazingly convenient and it shows you a JSON path at the bottom of the screen as you navigate. [0] https://jless.io/ https://jless.io/
- jbverschoor 3y ago
  This looks some much better as an ad-hoc tool. Would be cool if it supported more formats - plist, yaml, xml (hoow to do body, or conflicting attr/elements)
deleted 3y ago
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jrockway 3y ago
One of my coworkers really likes Miller: https://github.com/johnkerl/miller https://github.com/johnkerl/miller The idea is that you get awk/grep like commands for operating on structured data.
INTPenis 3y ago
jq, and yq, are tools you spend an hour figuring out and then leave them in a CI pipeline for 3 years.
zellyn 3y ago
ChatGPT excels at producing `jq` incantations; I can actually use `jq` now…
frou_dh 3y ago
> I'd also really like a version of `jq` that's easy to understand without having to learn a whole new syntax. Since JSON is JavaScript Object Notation, then an obvious non-special-snowflake language for such expressions on the CLI is JavaScript: https://fx.wtf/getting-started#json-processing https://fx.wtf/getting-started#json-processing
gchamonlive 3y ago
It is a little early to say, but I have been learning how nushell deals with structured data and it seems like it is very usable for simple cases to produce readable one-liners, and if you need to bring out the big guns the shell is also a full fledged scripting language. Don't know about how efficient it is though. It needs to justify moving to a completely different shell, but the way you deal with data in general does not restrict itself to manipulating json, but also the output of many commands, so you kinda have one unified piping interface for all these structured data manipulations, which I think is neat.
- bobbylarrybobby 3y ago
  From the data side, nushell uses polars for querying tabular data so it should be pretty fast. Not sure about its scripting language.
hyperthesis 3y ago
Maybe like SQL for relational algebra? Codd made two query languages that were "too difficult for mortals to use". (B-trees for performance was a separate issue) But jq's strength is its syntax - the difficulty is the semantics.
deleted 3y ago
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notatoad 3y ago
there's got to be some syntax though. jq does a unique function that isn't defined in any other syntax. i'm with you, the jq syntax is weird and sometimes difficult to understand. but the replacement would just be some different syntax. these little one-off unique syntaxes that i'm never going to properly learn are one of my favourite uses of chatGPT.

msluyter 3y ago

Obligatory reference to "gron" ("make JSON greppable"), which I find to be quite useful for many common tasks: https://github.com/tomnomnom/gron https://github.com/tomnomnom/gron

ishandotpage 3y ago

Have you tried `gron`? It converts your nested json into a line by line format which plays better with tools like `grep` From the project's README: ▶ gron "https://api.github.com/repos/tomnomnom/gron/commits?per_page=1 https://api.github.com/repos/tomnomnom/gron/commits?per_page..." | fgrep "commit.author" json[0].commit.author = {}; json[0].commit.author.date = "2016-07-02T10:51:21Z"; json[0].commit.author.email = "mail@tomnomnom.com"; json[0].commit.author.name = "Tom Hudson"; https://github.com/tomnomnom/gron https://github.com/tomnomnom/gron It was suggested to me in HN comments on an article I wrote about `jq`, and I have found myself using it a lot in my day to day workflow

hu3 3y ago
Thank you so much. This seems like a saner approach for some simpler use cases. It flattens the structure. And makes for easy diffing.
- evntdrvn 3y ago
  There's also this awesome tool to make JSON interactively navigable in the terminal: https://fx.wtf https://fx.wtf
  - llimllib 3y ago
    https://jless.io/ https://jless.io/ is similar, and will give you jq selectors so the two combine very well. (fx might have that feature too, I dunno)
    - evntdrvn 3y ago
      Ah thanks, jless is actually the one I was originally thinking of and trying to find! :D
sn0wf1re 3y ago
You can also mimic gron, including support for yaml with yq -o=props my-file.yaml
- majewsky 3y ago
  Doesn't work in my terminal. When you recommend yq behavior, please specify which yq you're using. There are at least two incompatible implementations.
stronglikedan 3y ago
This is awesome, thanks! Not OP, but this will help me to write specifications for modifying existing JSON structures immensely. It's kind of a pain parsing JSON by (old man) eye to figure out which properties are arrays, and follow property names down a chain. This will definitely help eliminate mistakes!
- pdimitar 3y ago
  Also try jless[0], it's amazingly convenient and it shows you a JSON path at the bottom of the screen as you navigate. [0] https://jless.io/ https://jless.io/
jbverschoor 3y ago
This looks some much better as an ad-hoc tool. Would be cool if it supported more formats - plist, yaml, xml (hoow to do body, or conflicting attr/elements)

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

jrockway 3y ago

One of my coworkers really likes Miller: https://github.com/johnkerl/miller https://github.com/johnkerl/miller The idea is that you get awk/grep like commands for operating on structured data.

INTPenis 3y ago

jq, and yq, are tools you spend an hour figuring out and then leave them in a CI pipeline for 3 years.

zellyn 3y ago

ChatGPT excels at producing `jq` incantations; I can actually use `jq` now…

frou_dh 3y ago

> I'd also really like a version of `jq` that's easy to understand without having to learn a whole new syntax. Since JSON is JavaScript Object Notation, then an obvious non-special-snowflake language for such expressions on the CLI is JavaScript: https://fx.wtf/getting-started#json-processing https://fx.wtf/getting-started#json-processing

gchamonlive 3y ago

It is a little early to say, but I have been learning how nushell deals with structured data and it seems like it is very usable for simple cases to produce readable one-liners, and if you need to bring out the big guns the shell is also a full fledged scripting language. Don't know about how efficient it is though. It needs to justify moving to a completely different shell, but the way you deal with data in general does not restrict itself to manipulating json, but also the output of many commands, so you kinda have one unified piping interface for all these structured data manipulations, which I think is neat.

bobbylarrybobby 3y ago
From the data side, nushell uses polars for querying tabular data so it should be pretty fast. Not sure about its scripting language.

hyperthesis 3y ago

Maybe like SQL for relational algebra? Codd made two query languages that were "too difficult for mortals to use". (B-trees for performance was a separate issue) But jq's strength is its syntax - the difficulty is the semantics.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

notatoad 3y ago

there's got to be some syntax though. jq does a unique function that isn't defined in any other syntax. i'm with you, the jq syntax is weird and sometimes difficult to understand. but the replacement would just be some different syntax. these little one-off unique syntaxes that i'm never going to properly learn are one of my favourite uses of chatGPT.