jsontsv
Transforms JSON objects into tab-separated line-oriented output, which is more
convenient for downstream processing with Unix tools like grep, awk,
diff, etc., and for inspecting with spreadsheet programs using a CSV output
option.
Synopsis
input.json:
{
"title": "Terminator 2: Judgement Day",
"year": 1991,
"stars": [
"Arnold Schwarzenegger",
"Linda Hamilton"
],
"ratings": {
"imdb": 8.5
}
}
{
"title": "Interstellar",
"year": 2014,
"stars": [
"Matthew McConaughey",
"Anne Hathaway"
],
"ratings": {
"imdb": 8.9
}
}
{
"title": "Terminator 2: Judgement Day",
"year": 1991,
"stars": [
{
"name": "Arnold Schwarzenegger"
},
{
"name": "Linda Hamilton"
}
],
"ratings": {
"imdb": 8.5
}
}
{
"title": "Interstellar",
"year": 2014,
"stars": [
{
"name": "Matthew McConaughey"
},
{
"name": "Anne Hathaway"
}
],
"ratings": {
"imdb": 8.9
}
}
Note that this input is not actually JSON at the top-level. It is a stream of
JSON objects. It can be fed into jsontsv:
jsontsv 'title year stars.name ratings.imdb' < input.json
outputs this tab-separated text:
Terminator 2: Judgement Day 1991 Arnold Schwarzenegger,Linda Hamilton 8.5
Interstellar 2014 Matthew McConaughey,Anne Hathaway 8.9
You can pick off array elements using [i] syntax:
jsontsv 'title year stars[0].name' < input.json
outputs
Terminator 2: Judgement Day 1991 Arnold Schwarzenegger
Interstellar 2014 Matthew McConaughey
Installation
Assuming you have a recent version of the Haskell
platform on your system,
cabal update
cabal install jsontsv
Make sure the installed executable is on your PATH.
Usage
jsontsv
Usage: jsontsv FIELDS ([-c|--csv] | [-d DELIM])
Transform JSON objects to TSV
Available options:
-h,--help Show this help text
-c,--csv output CSV
-d DELIM output field delimiter. Defaults to tab
Input should be a stream of JSON objects of the same or mostly similar shape,
separated by whitespace such as newlines. If the objects are wrapped in a JSON
array at the top level or nested inside a top-level object, use the jq
tool by Stephan Dolan to extract an object stream, e.g.:
curl -s "https://api.github.com/users/danchoi/repos?type=owner&sort=created&direction=desc" \
| jq '.[]' | jsontsv 'id name stargazers_count open_issues_count'
outputs
27397673 jsontsv 0 0
26033118 ngrender 24 1
25832026 rdoc 0 0
24756523 treehtml 0 0
24022588 heistexamples 0 0
24022042 hxtexamples 0 0
24005242 jdiff 0 0
23997156 https-types 0 0
22763562 podcasting 0 0
19294791 vimscript 3 0
JSON leaf values are printed as follows:
- Strings and numbers are copied to output.
- Boolean values are output as
t or f.
- null is printed as
null
- If the leaf value is an array, it is concatenated into a single comma-separated string
Performing post-processing on field values
Use awk!
Known alternatives
