jsonbatch-filecommand-linescripting

Windows Batch - Pretty Print JSON per Script

I have multiple JSON-files on a server, which can only run batch-scripts or command-line tools. The JSON files all aren't formatted properly, meaning there are no tab-spaces at the beginning of lines.

Is there a way, to write a batch-script or run a command-line tool to format the files, so they are normal again?

Solution

  • You will definitely need an external tool for that. I'm using the command-line JSON processor jq - just pass it the Identity filter . and it will pretty print the JSON it's been given as input.

    Update: Corrected syntax (where did that come from?), Sorry @Delfic and @Sonata. Even though the empty filter "" from my original answer works, I changed the filter like @Wolf said, as it is indeed mentioned in the manual as the "absolute simplest filter".

    Example:

    ECHO { "att1": 1, "att2": 2 } | jq .

    Output:

    {
  "att1": 1,
  "att2": 2
}

    If you want to process JSON input directly from the shell, you can also use null input -n:

    jq -n "{ "att1" : 1, "att2" : 2 }"

    To process a file, do:

    jq . dirty.json

    ...or, if you're so inclined:

    TYPE dirty.json | jq .