Using a comma-separated string in shell to update a JSON list with jq?

Question

How to append value to json key using?

val=""text"",""text"",""text""

jq '.doc[1].DEF[3].value="update comma separated val here" <<< "$jsonStr"

Your assignment is exactly the same as val=text,text,text; the quotes do nothing whatsoever (they don't become part of the shell variable's value, because they're parsed as syntax). You can verify this with echo "$val". — Charles Duffy
– Charles Duffy, Commented Jan 15, 2019 at 15:59

Charles Duffy · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-15 16:52:04Z

2

If your goal is to split a string on commas to generate a list, and use your list in jq, that might look like:

val=text1,text2,text3
jq --arg val "$val" '.whatever.item |= ($val | split(","))' <<<'{"whatever": {}}'

Note:

There's no point to paired double-quote sets in the shell assignment -- they literally cancel each other out and don't become part of the variable's value.
The jq argument --arg is used to pass that variable from a shell context to a jq context.
The |= construct is used to modify a nested value while still evaluating to the larger document.

answered Jan 15, 2019 at 16:01

Charles Duffy

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