Concatenate multiple values with jq

Given the following JSON object:

{
  "abc": "xyz",
  "foo": "bar",
  "testarr": [
    {"name": "item1", "key": "key1", "value": "value1"},
    {"name": "item2", "key": "key2", "value": "value2"}
  ]
}

To interpolate values into a string, use the \(foo) syntax (similar to $(foo) in bash):

cat test.json | jq -r '"abc is \(.abc) foo is \(.foo)"'

# Or:
cat test.json | jq -r '[.abc,.foo] | "abc is \(.[0]) foo is \(.[1])"'

NOTE: You need double quotes to actually be sent to jq so the result is parsed as a string, so put them inside the single quotes

Output:

abc is xyz foo is bar

Show the name, key, and value of each item in testarr as a tab-separated list, use @tsv (or @csv for a comma separated list):

cat test.json | jq -r '.testarr[] | [.name,.key,.item] | @tsv'

Output:

item1   key1
item2   key2

Remember to use -r to get the raw output or it will be a single string containing a tab separated string:

"item1\tkey1\t"
"item2\tkey2\t"

Show a string and a JSON value (use tostring):

cat test.json | jq -r '.testarr[] | [.abc,.testarr[0]|tostring] | @tsv'

Output:

xyz     {"name":"item1","key":"key1","value":"value1"}

#json #bash #tips