json-q

Retrieves values from JSON objects (and JavaScript objects) by css-selector-like query (includes attribute filters and array flattening).

I am not clever enough to use XPath over objects (via jsonpath, jsonata, JSONPath, ObjectPath or DefiantJs), while I like CSS selectors. JSONSelect looks abandoned, json-query looks overcomplicated; so I created more simple query language (inspired by CSS attribute selectors).

Example

const {get} = require('json-q');

const data = {
  a:{
    b:[
      {name:'xxx',c:{d:1}},
      {name:'yyy',c:{d:2}}
    ]
  }
};

get(data, "a b[.c.d=1] name"); //=> ['xxx']

API

get(object, selector, opt)

Returns array of all fields of object from any level of nesting that satisfies selector (with expansions via opt).

About selectors:

• "a"   means: get value of all fields named "a" from all nested level of given object
• ".a" means: get value of field named "a" from first level of given object (i.e. object["a"])
• "a b" means: get all values of all fields "b", that are nested of field "a", that can be at any level of given object
• ".a.b" means: get field "b", that is direct descendant of field "a" from first level of given object (i.e. object.a.b)

About filters:

• you can add filter of any depth at any level like this: "a.b[x.y=23] c"
• combination of filters "[.x=23][.y=3]" means "items heaving field x=23 AND field y=3"
• you can use [attr] [attr=value] [attr~=value] [attr|=value] [attr^=value] [attr$=value] [attr*=value] [attr=value] - just like CSS attribute filters do

About pseudos:

• do you remember CSS pseudo-classes? All that :focus, :active, :hover etc.? Pretty useless for objects, even :empty and :first-child, but it is a good concept to add user-defined (parameterless) functions.
• you can add it anywhere: "a b:empty.c"
• look at :empty and see the section about expansions

Another thing - I consider array as multiple values of field, so

1. arrays of arrays become flat, i.e. {a:[[1], [2,3]]} becomes {a:[1, 2, 3]}}

2. you can not address array items by index, i.e.

var data = {
  a:{
    b:{
      c:[1,2]
    }
  }
};

get(data, ".a.b.c"); //=> [1,2]
get(data, ".a.b.c.0"); //=> []


var data = {
  a:{
    b:[
      {c:1},
      {c:2}
    ]
  }
}

get(data, ".a.b.c"); //=> [1,2] also

Escaping Special Characters

There are no strings now. So if you have special symbols at field names then you should escape it - I mean dot, colon, square brackets and space symbols (i.e. " .:[]").

var data = {
  "a:c":{
      x:[1,2]
  }
};

get(data, "a:c"); //=> Error "Pseudo 'c' not found."
get(data, "a\\:c"); //=> {x:[1, 2]}

Expansions (i.e. opt param at get)

You can add your own filter or pseudo (or re-define existing one). The difference between them is that filter can only filter (obviously) while pseudo can do anything with intermediate result - i.e. delete, add, change (at any depth) objects at result array.

For instance, new filter for [a!=some value]

var d = [{a:{name:1}}, {a:{name:2}}]
var p = "a[name!=1]";

get( d, p, {
  operator : {
    "!=" : function(complexFieldValue, value){
      return true_if_one_is_true(complexFieldValue, value, (a,b)=>{return a!=b;});
    },
  }
}); // => [{name:2}]

And pseudo for add "abc" string to all fields names at any level (dont ask me what for)

var d = [{a:{b:1}}, {a:{c:2}}]
var p = "a:abc.cabc";

get( d, p, {
  pseudo : {
    "abc" : function(arrValue){
      return arrValue.map(value => {
        deep_iterate(value, (_obj) => {
          for(var i in _obj) {
            if (typeof _obj[i] !== 'object') {
              _obj[i+'abc'] = _obj[i];
              delete _obj[i];
            }
          }
        });
        return value;
      })
    },
  }
}); // => [2]

Browser

Please use index.min.js at browser (IE9+ and other modern browsers)

License

MIT