extract 2 values from JSON object and use as variables in loop using jq and bash

Question

I am new to jq. I am trying to write a simple script that loops through a JSON file, gets two values within each object and assigns them to two separate variables I can use with a curl REST call. I see both values as output when I echo $i but how can I get value and addr as separate variables?

for i in `cat /Users/egraham/Downloads/test2  | jq .[] | jq ."value,.addr"`; do

Answer 1

You can do this:

jq -rc '.populator.value + " " + .populator.addr' file.json |
while read -r value addr; do
    echo do something with "$value" and "$addr"
done

Answer 2

If spaces or tabs or other special characters make using 'read -r' problematic, and if your shell has "readarray", then it could be used:

$ readarray -t v < <(jq -rc '.populator | (.value,.addr)' file.json)

The values would then be available as ${v[0]} and ${v[1]}

This approach is especially useful if there are more than two values of interest, or if the number of values is variable or not known beforehand.

If your shell does not have readarray , then you can still use the array-oriented approach, eg along the lines of:

i=-1; while read -r a ; do i=$((i+1)); v[$i]="$a" ; done

Answer 3

First:

for i in cat /Users/egraham/Downloads/test2 | jq .[] | jq .value; do echo $i done

Second:

for i in cat /Users/egraham/Downloads/test2 | jq .[] | jq .addr; do echo $i done

I don't know any way to get it without running the commands separately. I don't know AWK, but maybe it's something worth considering.