# Useful Programs That I Used: jq command-line JSON Processor

Hi everyone, 

In this blogpost, I would like to give you some information about `jq`. As a developer, you work many time with JSON data. These types of data can sometimes be huge and complicated, therefore you can not find easily what you search in your complex `JSON` output. In these complicated times, you only want to see the data you need. At these times, `jq` is a good practice for you. 

### What is `jq`?

`jq` is a lightweight and flexible command-line JSON processor. It is an open-source project on [github](https://github.com/stedolan/jq) and it is written by C language. There are more than 19K star in the project, and more than 1K fork it is. It's available for all platforms like Linux, OS X and Windows and many more. You can visit `jq`[website](https://stedolan.github.io/jq/) for more details about jq. Usage of this tool is easy to learn, If you would like to do more practice you can visit [jqplay](https://jqplay.org/) website. This website contains good examples of how to use it.

### Samples


I will use stedolan's jq github profile like below. The `<request>` will be like below data.

```
curl 'https://api.github.com/repos/stedolan/jq/commits?per_page=2'
```

Output of above code is enough complicated. So we will manipulate this request for our needed.

If you run above code in the terminal, you will see the not formatted `JSON` data. 


![Screen Shot 2021-04-25 at 16.09.41.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1619356201115/_4jztEmI_.png)

> Formatting

Pipe

```
curl <request> | jq
curl <request> | jq .
```

![Screen Shot 2021-04-25 at 16.38.06.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1619357905106/8pcKktGGv.png)

> Get specific array item from JSON data.

```
curl <request> | jq '.[0]'
```

Above request give you an item that index is `0` from JSON list.
 
> Get specific key values from JSON data

```
curl <request> jq '.[].node_id'
```

![Screen Shot 2021-04-25 at 16.51.35.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1619358743029/XMyOvR0uc.png)

> Restructure your output

You can also create your output JSON data like below.
I will try to get just commiter name, commit message and commit author email. So you can just type like below to create new output.

``` 
curl <request> | jq  '[.[] | {message: .commit.message, name: .commit.committer.name, email:.commit.author.email}]'
```


![Screen Shot 2021-04-25 at 16.58.07.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1619359194433/buTsag77J.png)

> Select specific condition

```
curl <request> | jq '.[] | select(.commit.message=="Fix #2197 extended regex pattern example") |  {message: .commit.message, name: .commit.committer.name, email:.commit.author.email} '
```

I searched a specific message in JSON and get some data for my new output JSON.


![Screen Shot 2021-04-25 at 17.08.06.png](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1619359704753/wgjV1Iq3Zs.png)


### Conclusion


I tried to give you a little information on how to use `jq`. I always use this tool when I work with JSON data. I believe that this tool will help you more when you begin to use. Apart from what I have shown above, this program has more features. Actually, you need to examine the [official website](https://stedolan.github.io/jq/) for more information. 


I hope you enjoy while reading.

Have a nice coding.