6 ms·

Using jq to format JSON on the clipboard

61 points by stefanvdw1 15d ago

stefanvdw1 15d ago
Not mine, just very useful
dpflan 15d ago
There is also: - xq for xml - yq for yaml
- mcoliver 15d ago
  I wrote uq specifically for urls https://github.com/mcoliver/uq https://github.com/mcoliver/uq
- dividedbyzero 14d ago
  yq can do a lot more than just yaml: > yq is a portable command-line YAML, JSON, XML, CSV, TOML, HCL and properties processor
- akdev1l 14d ago
  you can use xmllint for xml via xmllint —-xpath It’s great as it is included by default in RHEL/Fedora
  - deleted 14d ago
    [deleted]
mhalikosen 15d ago
I didn't even know such a tool existed until Opus used it.
OskarS 15d ago
Lovely little alias, but I much prefer fracjson[0] pretty printing to jq, so I might go with that instead! [0]: https://github.com/j-brooke/FracturedJson https://github.com/j-brooke/FracturedJson
netsharc 14d ago
A universal tool (well, since I use Windows, a Windows tool) to modify the clipboard would be cool. So, copy text to clipboard, press a hotkey to popup the menu, and it'll offer options depending on the detected text. For example changing the clipboard contents to prettified (if it detects JSON, XML, HTML), or formatting a number back and forth (e.g. working with SSN's out of numerical DB entries when they prefer AAA-GG-SSSS).
deleted 14d ago
[deleted]
pletnes 14d ago
Cool idea! I think it would look better as a function than an alias, but that doesn’t matter much.
lkbm 14d ago
I have this as a bash script and a some similar bash and python scripts for converting between python's print(my_dict) and json, or to run some python (mostly the dicts) through black. The j2p is pretty self-evident if you know any python, and the only trick to p2j was knowing `ast.literal_eval(input_str)`.
- megagpt1 14d ago
  Should be print(repr(my_dict)) in case my_dict is actually a string, or you'd have an injection attack
nullgeo 14d ago
I like the version where it throws the error. That way I will realize I might not have copied the right JSON (or forgotten to copy)
jdbloodstone 14d ago
[dead]
chamomeal 14d ago
I have a similar alias for borkdude’s ‘jet’ tool. The extra nice thing about jet is you can convert json into edn, then pipe it into an inline babashka repl where you can inspect the object with all the power of clojure. It is super duper nice for quickly looking through hunks (even huge hunks) of json. You can sum things up, filter through thousands of elements, generate a json schema with malli, whatever you want!
_flux 14d ago
I use similar approach for fixing up clipboard contents with tr '\n' ' ' | sed 's/\t/ /g; s/ */ /g' But also I switched to xsel at one point, as xclip doesn't seem to deal as well with unicode. It could be xclip has been fixed since then, though.
- CamJN 14d ago
  /\ \ */ is the same as / +/, but if you only want to replace 2+ spaces and leave the single spaces alone, then what you really want is /\ \ +/. Edit: had to escape the spaces because HN ate my spaces.
  - _flux 14d ago
    You need to use -E to get that behavior with GNU Sed.
bilkow 14d ago
Loved it! I made this version for `fish` and `wl-clipboard`: function clipboard-format-json # Inspired by https://chris48s.github.io/blogmarks/posts/2021/jsontidy/ if set -l formatted "$(wl-paste | jq '.')" wl-copy $formatted end end By saving it to .config/fish/functions/clipboard-format-json.fish, it should immediately work
1-more 14d ago
I do a lot of this and `pbpaste | sed s/^ // | pbcopy` and things like that. It just fits my brain better. What's nice about raycast as a macOS pasteboard manager is that whatever you last selected via Cmd-Shift-V is the output of `pbpaste`. I'm not 100% sure how that is affected by copying images though.
wodenokoto 14d ago
I set up my Linux on WSL to use 'pbpaste' and 'pbcopy' as shorthand’s for the long and hard to remember native commands. On mobile, but I believe for one of them on WSL is something like 'paste.exe'
briaoeuidhtns 11d ago
I think kde plasma's clipboard tool is quite underrated for this type of thing too. you add something similar as an action, then you get a little popup format button whenever you copy any json. I use it for all sorts of similar things

61 points by stefanvdw1 15d ago

stefanvdw1 15d ago

Not mine, just very useful

dpflan 15d ago

There is also: - xq for xml - yq for yaml

mcoliver 15d ago
I wrote uq specifically for urls https://github.com/mcoliver/uq https://github.com/mcoliver/uq
dividedbyzero 14d ago
yq can do a lot more than just yaml: > yq is a portable command-line YAML, JSON, XML, CSV, TOML, HCL and properties processor
akdev1l 14d ago
you can use xmllint for xml via xmllint —-xpath It’s great as it is included by default in RHEL/Fedora
- deleted 14d ago
  [deleted]

mhalikosen 15d ago

I didn't even know such a tool existed until Opus used it.

OskarS 15d ago

Lovely little alias, but I much prefer fracjson[0] pretty printing to jq, so I might go with that instead! [0]: https://github.com/j-brooke/FracturedJson https://github.com/j-brooke/FracturedJson

netsharc 14d ago

A universal tool (well, since I use Windows, a Windows tool) to modify the clipboard would be cool. So, copy text to clipboard, press a hotkey to popup the menu, and it'll offer options depending on the detected text. For example changing the clipboard contents to prettified (if it detects JSON, XML, HTML), or formatting a number back and forth (e.g. working with SSN's out of numerical DB entries when they prefer AAA-GG-SSSS).

deleted 14d ago

[deleted]

pletnes 14d ago

Cool idea! I think it would look better as a function than an alias, but that doesn’t matter much.

lkbm 14d ago

I have this as a bash script and a some similar bash and python scripts for converting between python's print(my_dict) and json, or to run some python (mostly the dicts) through black. The j2p is pretty self-evident if you know any python, and the only trick to p2j was knowing `ast.literal_eval(input_str)`.

megagpt1 14d ago
Should be print(repr(my_dict)) in case my_dict is actually a string, or you'd have an injection attack

nullgeo 14d ago

I like the version where it throws the error. That way I will realize I might not have copied the right JSON (or forgotten to copy)

jdbloodstone 14d ago

[dead]

chamomeal 14d ago

I have a similar alias for borkdude’s ‘jet’ tool. The extra nice thing about jet is you can convert json into edn, then pipe it into an inline babashka repl where you can inspect the object with all the power of clojure. It is super duper nice for quickly looking through hunks (even huge hunks) of json. You can sum things up, filter through thousands of elements, generate a json schema with malli, whatever you want!

_flux 14d ago

I use similar approach for fixing up clipboard contents with tr '\n' ' ' | sed 's/\t/ /g; s/ */ /g' But also I switched to xsel at one point, as xclip doesn't seem to deal as well with unicode. It could be xclip has been fixed since then, though.

CamJN 14d ago
/\ \ */ is the same as / +/, but if you only want to replace 2+ spaces and leave the single spaces alone, then what you really want is /\ \ +/. Edit: had to escape the spaces because HN ate my spaces.
- _flux 14d ago
  You need to use -E to get that behavior with GNU Sed.

bilkow 14d ago

Loved it! I made this version for `fish` and `wl-clipboard`: function clipboard-format-json # Inspired by https://chris48s.github.io/blogmarks/posts/2021/jsontidy/ if set -l formatted "$(wl-paste | jq '.')" wl-copy $formatted end end By saving it to .config/fish/functions/clipboard-format-json.fish, it should immediately work

1-more 14d ago

I do a lot of this and `pbpaste | sed s/^ // | pbcopy` and things like that. It just fits my brain better. What's nice about raycast as a macOS pasteboard manager is that whatever you last selected via Cmd-Shift-V is the output of `pbpaste`. I'm not 100% sure how that is affected by copying images though.

wodenokoto 14d ago

I set up my Linux on WSL to use 'pbpaste' and 'pbcopy' as shorthand’s for the long and hard to remember native commands. On mobile, but I believe for one of them on WSL is something like 'paste.exe'

briaoeuidhtns 11d ago

I think kde plasma's clipboard tool is quite underrated for this type of thing too. you add something similar as an action, then you get a little popup format button whenever you copy any json. I use it for all sorts of similar things