Parse a multidimensional json array using bash

Question

I'd like to iterate over a multidimensional json array in bash but haven't found a solution.

Here is what the multidimensional array would look like:

{ "FILES": [ [ "file1.yaml", "file2.yaml", "file3.yaml" ], [ "file1.json", "file2.json" ] ] } 

I'd like to convert each array into a string that will eventually be the input to a command.

So something like:

#!/bin/bash Json_Array=$(cat <<EOF { "FILES": [ [ "file1.yaml", "file2.yaml", "file3.yaml" ], [ "file1.json", "file2.json" ] ] } EOF ) function runCmd () { echo "command $1" } function runCmds () { jq -c '.FILES' <<< "$Json_Array" | while read i; do runCmd "$(echo $i | jq .)" done } runCmds 

So the output should be:

command file1.yaml file2.yaml file3.yaml command file1.json file2.json 

Thank you for any help!

Answer 1

Insert the command with any options at the start of each array, then pass each array through @sh to create shell code. Evaluate the shell code.

Here, I'm also showing how to insert extra arguments to the command (-a and -b hello):

eval "$( jq -r '.FILES | map([ "command", "-a", "-b", "hello", .[] ])[] | @sh' file.json )" 

Given the JSON in the question, this would execute the following commands in the shell:

'command' '-a' '-b' 'hello' 'file1.yaml' 'file2.yaml' 'file3.yaml' 'command' '-a' '-b' 'hello' 'file1.json' 'file2.json' 

If you have your JSON document in some variable, $json, then use

eval "$( jq -r '.FILES | map([ "command", "-a", "-b", "hello", .[] ])[] | @sh' <<<"$json" )"