Assigning an Array Parsed With jq to Bash Script Array - arrays

Question

I parsed a json file with jq like this :
# cat test.json | jq '.logs' | jq '.[]' | jq '._id' | jq -s
It returns an array like this : [34,235,436,546,.....]
Using bash script i described an array :
# declare -a msgIds = ...
This array uses () instead of [] so when I pass the array given above to this array it won't work.
([324,32,45..]) this causes problem. If i remove the jq -s, an array forms with only 1 member in it.
Is there a way to solve this issue?

Answer 1

We can solve this problem by two ways. They are:
Input string:
// test.json
{
"keys": ["key1","key2","key3"]
}
Approach 1:
1) Use jq -r (output raw strings, not JSON texts) .
KEYS=$(jq -r '.keys' test.json)
echo $KEYS
# Output: [ "key1", "key2", "key3" ]
2) Use #sh (Converts input string to a series of space-separated strings). It removes square brackets[], comma(,) from the string.
KEYS=$(<test.json jq -r '.keys | #sh')
echo $KEYS
# Output: 'key1' 'key2' 'key3'
3) Using tr to remove single quotes from the string output. To delete specific characters use the -d option in tr.
KEYS=$((<test.json jq -r '.keys | #sh')| tr -d \')
echo $KEYS
# Output: key1 key2 key3
4) We can convert the comma-separated string to the array by placing our string output in a round bracket().
It also called compound Assignment, where we declare the array with a bunch of values.
ARRAYNAME=(value1 value2 .... valueN)
#!/bin/bash
KEYS=($((<test.json jq -r '.keys | #sh') | tr -d \'\"))
echo "Array size: " ${#KEYS[#]}
echo "Array elements: "${KEYS[#]}
# Output:
# Array size: 3
# Array elements: key1 key2 key3
Approach 2:
1) Use jq -r to get the string output, then use tr to delete characters like square brackets, double quotes and comma.
#!/bin/bash
KEYS=$(jq -r '.keys' test.json | tr -d '[],"')
echo $KEYS
# Output: key1 key2 key3
2) Then we can convert the comma-separated string to the array by placing our string output in a round bracket().
#!/bin/bash
KEYS=($(jq -r '.keys' test.json | tr -d '[]," '))
echo "Array size: " ${#KEYS[#]}
echo "Array elements: "${KEYS[#]}
# Output:
# Array size: 3
# Array elements: key1 key2 key3

Answer 2

To correctly parse values that have spaces, newlines (or any other arbitrary characters) just use jq's #sh filter and bash's declare -a. (No need for a while read loop or any other pre-processing)
// foo.json
{"data": ["A B", "C'D", ""]}
str=$(jq -r '.data | #sh' foo.json)
declare -a arr="($str)" # must be quoted like this
$ declare -p arr
declare -a arr=([0]="A B" [1]="C'D" [2]="")
The reason that this works correctly is that #sh will produce a space-separated list of shell-quoted words:
$ echo "$str"
'A B' 'C'\''D' ''
and this is exactly the format that declare expects for an array definition.

Answer 3

Use jq -r to output a string "raw", without JSON formatting, and use the #sh formatter to format your results as a string for shell consumption. Per the jq docs:
#sh:
The input is escaped suitable for use in a command-line for a POSIX shell. If the input is an array, the output will be a series of space-separated strings.
So can do e.g.
msgids=($(<test.json jq -r '.logs[]._id | #sh'))
and get the result you want.

Answer 4

From the jq FAQ (https://github.com/stedolan/jq/wiki/FAQ):
𝑸: How can a stream of JSON texts produced by jq be converted into a bash array of corresponding values?
A: One option would be to use mapfile (aka readarray), for example:
mapfile -t array <<< $(jq -c '.[]' input.json)
An alternative that might be indicative of what to do in other shells is to use read -r within a while loop. The following bash script populates an array, x, with JSON texts. The key points are the use of the -c option, and the use of the bash idiom while read -r value; do ... done < <(jq .......):
#!/bin/bash
x=()
while read -r value
do
x+=("$value")
done < <(jq -c '.[]' input.json)

Answer 5

++ To resolve this, we can use a very simple approach:
++ Since I am not aware of you input file, I am creating a file input.json with the following contents:
input.json:
{
"keys": ["key1","key2","key3"]
}
++ Use jq to get the value from the above file input.json:
Command: cat input.json | jq -r '.keys | #sh'
Output: 'key1' 'key2' 'key3'
Explanation: | #sh removes [ and "
++ To remove ' ' as well we use tr
command: cat input.json | jq -r '.keys | #sh' | tr -d \'
Explanation: use tr delete -d to remove '
++ To store this in a bash array we use () with `` and print it:
command:
KEYS=(`cat input.json | jq -r '.keys | #sh' | tr -d \'`)
To print all the entries of the array: echo "${KEYS[*]}"