Json.Path

g GObject.Object GObject.Object Json.Path Json.Path GObject.Object->Json.Path

Subclasses:

None

Methods

Inherited:

GObject.Object (37)

Structs:

GObject.ObjectClass (5)

class

new ()

class

query (expression, root)

compile (expression)

match (root)

Virtual Methods

Inherited:

GObject.Object (7)

Properties

None

Signals

Inherited:

GObject.Object (1)

Fields

Inherited:

GObject.Object (1)

Class Details

class Json.Path(**kwargs)
Bases:

GObject.Object

Abstract:

No

Structure:

Json.PathClass

JsonPath is a simple class implementing the JSONPath syntax for extracting data out of a JSON tree.

While the semantics of the JSONPath expressions are heavily borrowed by the XPath specification for XML, the syntax follows the ECMAScript origins of JSON.

Once a JsonPath instance has been created, it has to compile a JSONPath expression using [method`Json`.Path.compile] before being able to match it to a JSON tree; the same JsonPath instance can be used to match multiple JSON trees. It it also possible to compile a new JSONPath expression using the same JsonPath instance; the previous expression will be discarded only if the compilation of the new expression is successful.

The simple convenience function [func`Json`.Path.query] can be used for one-off matching.

Syntax of the JSONPath expressions

A JSONPath expression is composed by path indices and operators. Each path index can either be a member name or an element index inside a JSON tree. A JSONPath expression must start with the $ operator; each path index is separated using either the dot notation or the bracket notation, e.g.:

``` // dot notation $.store.book[0].title

// bracket notation $’’store’ [‘book’]’’0 [‘title’]’ ```

The available operators are:

  • The $ character represents the root node of the JSON tree, and matches the entire document.

  • Child nodes can either be matched using . or []. For instance, both $.store.book and $['store']['book'] match the contents of the book member of the store object.

  • Child nodes can be reached without specifying the whole tree structure through the recursive descent operator, or ... For instance, $..author matches all author member in every object.

  • Child nodes can grouped through the wildcard operator, or *. For instance, $.store.book[*].author matches all author members of any object element contained in the book array of the store object.

  • Element nodes can be accessed using their index (starting from zero) in the subscript operator []. For instance, $.store.book[0] matches the first element of the book array of the store object.

  • Subsets of element nodes can be accessed using the set notation operator [i,j,...]. For instance, $.store.book[0,2] matches the elements 0 and 2 (the first and third) of the book array of the store object.

  • Slices of element nodes can be accessed using the slice notation operation [start:end:step]. If start is omitted, the starting index of the slice is implied to be zero; if end is omitted, the ending index of the slice is implied to be the length of the array; if step is omitted, the step of the slice is implied to be 1. For instance, $.store.book[:2] matches the first two elements of the book array of the store object.

More information about JSONPath is available on Stefan Gössner’s JSONPath website.

Example of JSONPath matches

The following example shows some of the results of using JsonPath on a JSON tree. We use the following JSON description of a bookstore:

``json { “store”: {

“book”: [
{ “category”: “reference”, “author”: “Nigel Rees”,

“title”: “Sayings of the Century”, “price”: “8.95” },

{ “category”: “fiction”, “author”: “Evelyn Waugh”,

“title”: “Sword of Honour”, “price”: “12.99” },

{ “category”: “fiction”, “author”: “Herman Melville”,

“title”: “Moby Dick”, “isbn”: “0-553-21311-3”, “price”: “8.99” },

{ “category”: “fiction”, “author”: “J. R. R. Tolkien”,

“title”: “The Lord of the Rings”, “isbn”: “0-395-19395-8”, “price”: “22.99” }

], “bicycle”: { “color”: “red”, “price”: “19.95” }

}

}

We can parse the JSON using [class`Json`.Parser]:

``c JsonParser *parser = json_parser_new (); json_parser_load_from_data (parser, json_data, -1, NULL); ``

If we run the following code:

``c JsonNode *result; JsonPath *path = json_path_new (); json_path_compile (path, “$.store..author”, NULL); result = json_path_match (path, json_parser_get_root (parser)); ``

The result node will contain an array with all values of the author member of the objects in the JSON tree. If we use a [class`Json`.Generator] to convert the result node to a string and print it:

``c JsonGenerator *generator = json_generator_new (); json_generator_set_root (generator, result); char *str = json_generator_to_data (generator, NULL); g_print (“Results: %sn”, str); ``

The output will be:

``json [“Nigel Rees”,”Evelyn Waugh”,”Herman Melville”,”J. R. R. Tolkien”] ``

New in version 0.14.

classmethod new()
Returns:

the newly created path

Return type:

Json.Path

Creates a new JsonPath instance.

Once created, the JsonPath object should be used with [method`Json`.Path.compile] and [method`Json`.Path.match].

New in version 0.14.

classmethod query(expression, root)
Parameters:
  • expression (str) – a JSONPath expression

  • root (Json.Node) – the root of a JSON tree

Raises:

GLib.Error

Returns:

a newly-created node of type JSON_NODE_ARRAY containing the array of matching nodes

Return type:

Json.Node

Queries a JSON tree using a JSONPath expression.

This function is a simple wrapper around [ctor`Json`.Path.new], [method`Json`.Path.compile], and [method`Json`.Path.match]. It implicitly creates a JsonPath instance, compiles the given expression and matches it against the JSON tree pointed by root.

New in version 0.14.

compile(expression)
Parameters:

expression (str) – a JSONPath expression

Raises:

GLib.Error

Returns:

TRUE if the compilation was successful, and FALSE otherwise

Return type:

bool

Validates and decomposes the given expression.

A JSONPath expression must be compiled before calling [method`Json`.Path.match].

New in version 0.14.

match(root)
Parameters:

root (Json.Node) – the root node of the JSON data to match

Returns:

a newly-created node of type JSON_NODE_ARRAY containing the array of matching nodes

Return type:

Json.Node

Matches the JSON tree pointed by root using the expression compiled into the JsonPath.

The nodes matching the expression will be copied into an array.

New in version 0.14.