How do I parse multiple matches using jq?

Question

How do I get the first index of a query that contains multiple matches? I am trying to get the value of the first key called ELEMENT in this query:

```
{
  "ELEMENT": "FADC6B14-0369-4FF4-9ADC-A5E0F5C6D30D",
  "type": "XCUIElementTypeStaticText",
  "label": "this.com"
}
{
  "ELEMENT": "CC89DD73-AB90-495E-A90B-74722C56DD46",
  "type": "XCUIElementTypeStaticText",
  "label": "this.com"
}
{
  "ELEMENT": "B888ADA6-4209-44C4-BCB8-F5174312D102",
  "type": "XCUIElementTypeStaticText",
  "label": "this.com"
}
{
  "ELEMENT": "9A6E77C7-E93D-41DE-9163-2CB60B8DD2FB",
  "type": "XCUIElementTypeStaticText",
  "label": "this.com"
}
```

Here is the cURL that produces this result:

curl -X POST $JSON_HEADER -d "{\"using\":\"partial link text\",\"value\":\"label=this.com\"}" $DEVICE_URL/session/$SESSION_ID/elements | jq -r '.value[] | select(.label=="this.com")'

I was thinking it could be label[0]=="this.com" but I get the message Cannot index string with number

Answer 1

It looks like .value contains an array; if so, then the jq query that matches your description would be:

.value | map( select(.label=="this.com")) | .[0]

If there is no match, this will produce null , so you might want to make adjustments accordingly.

If you want the value of .ELEMENT in the first match, you could consider:

.value | map( select(.label=="this.com")) | .[0] // empty | .ELEMENT

If your jq has first/1 , a more efficient solution is possible:

first( .value[] | select(.label=="this.com") ) | . ELEMENT