srch

Search JSONs for values based on the path.

Example Usage

srch fieldOne.index 2 example_files/*.json

Output: someList.1.fieldOne.index: 2

examples_files/test.json:

{
    "someList": [
        {
            "fieldOne": {
                "irrelevantInformation": 0,
                "isPresent": false,
                "index": 0
            },
            "fieldTwo": {
                "irrelevantInformation": 0,
                "isPresent": false,
                "index": 1
            }
        },
        {
            "fieldOne": {
                "isPresent": true,
                "index": 2
            },
            "fieldTwo": {
                "isPresent": true,
                "index": 3
            }
        }
    ]
}

Command	Output
srch index "1|2" example_files/*.json	someList.0.fieldTwo.index: 1 someList.1.fieldOne.index: 2
srch index "[0-2]" example_files/*.json	someList.0.fieldOne.index: 0 someList.0.fieldTwo.index: 1 someList.1.fieldOne.index: 2
srch index "[^1]" example_files/*.json	someList.0.fieldOne.index: 0 someList.1.fieldOne.index: 2 someList.1.fieldTwo.index: 3
srch index ">1<4" example_files/*.json -n	someList.1.fieldOne.index: 2 someList.1.fieldTwo.index: 3
srch fieldOne.isPresent true example_files/*.json	someList.1.fieldOne.isPresent: true
srch 1.fieldOne.isPresent true example_files/test.json	someList.1.fieldOne.isPresent: true
srch 0.fieldOne.isPresent true example_files/test.json
srch isPresent true example_files/*.json	someList.1.fieldOne.isPresent: true someList.1.fieldTwo.isPresent: true
srch isPresent true example_files/*.json -s	someList.1.fieldOne.isPresent: true
srch isPresent true example_files/*.json -p	example_files/test.json example_files/test.json
srch isPresent true example_files/*.json -s -p	example_files/test.json
cat example_files/test.json | srch isPresent true	someList.1.fieldOne.isPresent: true someList.1.fieldTwo.isPresent: true
cat example_files/test.json | srch isPresent true | wc	2 4 72

Search Term Syntax

The field names in the field path are separated by dots "." by default, can be changed via -f flag. Integers are interpreted as list indices, starting at 0. Only the "tail" of the field path needs to be specified.

The search term is interpreted as a regular expression, unless the -n/--numeric flag is used. Then up to two of the operations "<=", ">=", "<" and ">" are allowed, for examples ">0<2" or "<100".

Indepth Examples

Finding Files With Multiple Conditions

To find all files that have fieldOne.isPresent false and fieldTwo.isPresent true, you can use srch with the path -p and single -s flag together with uniq -d and process substitution:

sort <(srch fieldOne.isPresent false example_files/*.json -p -s) <(srch fieldTwo.isPresent true example_files/*.json -p -s) | uniq -d

To find all files where (at least) one of the above conditions is met, remove the -d flag:

sort <(srch fieldOne.isPresent false example_files/*.json -p -s) <(srch fieldTwo.isPresent true example_files/*.json -p -s) | uniq

Calculating the Sum of Values

srch index "[0-9]" example_files/test.json | awk -F ': ' '{sum += $2} END {print sum}'

Exclude Data From Specific Field

srch isPresent true example_files/*.json | grep -v "fieldTwo"

Copying Files Conditionally

srch isPresent true example_files/*.json -p -s | xargs -I {} cp {} backup_dir/

Tabular Output

srch index "[0-3]" example_files/*.json | column -t -s ':'

Adding Line Numbers

srch index "[0-3]" example_files/*.json | nl

Conditional Logic in Scripts

#!/bin/bash

output=$(srch isPresent true example_files/*.json)

if [ -z "$output" ]; then
  echo "Did not find 'isPresent: true'."
else
  echo "Found 'isPresent: true' in at least one file."
fi