What does `jq` do? Flags & examples explained

jq examples, explained

$ jq -r '.items[] | select(.age > 30) | .name' data.json

jqcommand-line JSON processor (apply a filter to JSON input)
-rraw output — print strings without JSON quotes
.items[] | select(.age > 30) | .namejq filter: iterate over each element of .items, then keep only items where .age > 30, then get field .name
data.jsonan argument passed to the command

jq flags & options

-r	raw output — print strings without JSON quotes
-j	raw output with no trailing newline between results
-c	compact output — one JSON result per line
-n	don't read input; use null as the input
-s	slurp — read the whole input stream into one array
-R	read raw input — each line becomes a JSON string
-e	set the exit code from the last output (for scripting)
-S	sort object keys in the output
-a	output non-ASCII characters as \uXXXX escapes
-f	read the filter program from a file
-arg	define a string variable: --arg name value
-argjson	define a JSON variable: --argjson name json
-tab	indent the output with tabs

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