Getting the first element of json data with jq

Question

I'm working with Poloniex API. While using returnTicker function, the data comes like this.

curl "https://poloniex.com/public?command=returnTicker"

{
  "BTC_BTS": {
    "id": 14,
    "last": "0.00000111",
    "lowestAsk": "0.00000112",
    "highestBid": "0.00000110",
    "percentChange": "0.09900990",
    "baseVolume": "3.12079869",
    "quoteVolume": "2318738.79293715",
    "isFrozen": "0",
    "high24hr": "0.00000152",
    "low24hr": "0.00000098"
  },
  "BTC_DASH": {
    "id": 24,
    "last": "0.00466173",
    "lowestAsk": "0.00466008",
    "highestBid": "0.00464358",
    "percentChange": "0.02318430",
    "baseVolume": "1.98111396",
    "quoteVolume": "425.22973220",
    "isFrozen": "0",
    "high24hr": "0.00482962",
    "low24hr": "0.00450482"
....

  },
  "USDT_GRT": {
    "id": 497,
    "last": "0.72811272",
    "lowestAsk": "0.75999916",
    "highestBid": "0.72740000",
    "percentChange": "0.48594450",
    "baseVolume": "133995.43411815",
    "quoteVolume": "194721.36672887",
    "isFrozen": "0",
    "high24hr": "0.79000000",
    "low24hr": "0.45000020"
  },
  "TRX_SUN": {
    "id": 498,
    "last": "500.00000000",
    "lowestAsk": "449.99999999",
    "highestBid": "100.00000000",
    "percentChange": "0.00000000",
    "baseVolume": "0.00000000",
    "quoteVolume": "0.00000000",
    "isFrozen": "0",
    "high24hr": "0.00000000",
    "low24hr": "0.00000000"
  }
}  

I want the output like this

BTC_BTS : 14 : 0.00000111 : 0.00000112 : 0.00000110 : 0.09900990 : 3.12079869 : 2318738.79293715 : 0 : 0.00000152 : 0.00000098
...
USDT_GRT : 497 : 0.72428700 : 0.75999958 : 0.72630001 : 0.47813685 : 133968.74968533 : 194695.96886712 : 0 : 0.79000000 : 0.45000020
TRX_SUN : 498 : 500.00000000 : 449.99999999 : 100.00000000 : 0.00000000 : 0.00000000 : 0.00000000 : 0 : 0.00000000 : 0.00000000

I am using jq and my problem is accesing the currency pair name.

I could do this;

14 : 0.00000111 : 0.00000112 : 0.00000110 : 0.09900990 : 3.12079869 : 2318738.79293715 : 0 : 0.00000152 : 0.00000098
...
497 : 0.72428700 : 0.75999958 : 0.72630001 : 0.47813685 : 133968.74968533 : 194695.96886712 : 0 : 0.79000000 : 0.45000020
498 : 500.00000000 : 449.99999999 : 100.00000000 : 0.00000000 : 0.00000000 : 0.00000000 : 0 : 0.00000000 : 0.00000000

by using this command;

curl "https://poloniex.com/public?command=returnTicker" |jq -r | jq '.[] | (.id|tostring) + " : " + (.last|tostring) + " : " + (.lowestAsk|tostring) + " : " + (.highestBid|tostring) + " : " + (.percentChange|tostring) + " : " + (.baseVolume|tostring) + " : " + (.quoteVolume|tostring) + " : " + (.isFrozen|tostring) + " : " + (.high24hr|tostring) + " : " + (.low24hr|tostring)'|jq -r

not only this, in every jq pipeline, I cant access the first element of json

I am not meaning the |jq.BTC_BTS or |jq.USDT_GRT pipeline.

|jq. gives whole json, |jq.[] gives the sub elements after the first element.

How can i access the first path?

By the way, I may have written stupid and long pipeline with jq. If you have any idea to convert whole json to a row-column data, I am open to your ideas.

Thank you all for your answers.

Answer 1

To be safe, it might be better not to assume that the ordering of the keys is the same in all the inner objects. Ergo:

keys_unsorted as $outer
| (.[$outer[0]] | keys_unsorted) as $keys
| $outer[] as $k
| [ $k, .[$k][$keys[]] ]
| join(" : ")

Answer 2

I think this does what you want.

curl -s "https://poloniex.com/public?command=returnTicker" | \
jq -r 'to_entries
       | .[] 
       | [ .key, (.value | to_entries | .[] | .value) ] 
       | join(" : ")'

In a nutshell, put everything in an array and use join to produce the desired output.

Update

As luciole75w notes, my solution has too many steps. This is better.

jq -r 'to_entries[] | [ .key, .value[] ] | join(" : ")'

That said, I would use peak's solution. Mine does not guarantee that the columns are the same for each line.