Json

define an array

root@spboot:~/app/node_modules/json/lib$ echo '{"niz":["element1", "element2", "element3"]}' | jq
{
  "niz": [
    "element1",
    "element2",
    "element3"
  ]
}

define a dict

root@spboot:~/app/node_modules/json/lib$ echo '{"dict":{"key1":"var1", "key2":"var2", "key3":"var3"}}' | jq
{
  "dict": {
    "key1": "var1",
    "key2": "var2",
    "key3": "var3"
  }
}

define a dict of one dict

root@spboot:~/app/node_modules/json/lib$ echo '{"dict":{"key":{"key1":"var1", "key2":"var2", "key3":"var3"}}}' | jq
{
  "dict": {
    "key": {
      "key1": "var1",
      "key2": "var2",
      "key3": "var3"
    }
  }
}

define a dict which includes one dict and two key-value pairs

root@spboot:~/app/node_modules/json/lib$ echo '{"dict":{"key":{"key1":"var1"}, "key2":"var2", "key3":"var3"}}' | jq
{
  "dict": {
    "key": {
      "key1": "var1"
    },
    "key2": "var2",
    "key3": "var3"
  }
}

alternative using a python

#!bash


$ echo '{"first_key": "value", "second_key": "value2"}' | python -c 'import sys, json; print json.load(sys.stdin)[sys.argv[1]]' second_key
$ value2