JQ Expression Syntax for Creating Filters

This section describes common JQ syntax elements you can use to create filter conditions.

JQ Filter	Description	JSON Sample	Result
[.[]]	Selects all elements of an array.	[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]	[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
[.[] | .field]	Selects a specific field from each object in an array.	[{ "field": "value1" }, { "field": "value2" }]	["value1", "value2"]
[.[] | select(.field == "value")]	Filters elements where a specific field equals a value.	[{ "field": "value1" }, { "field": "value2" }]	[{ "field": "value1" }]
map(has("field"))	Extracts the results of a specific function applied.	[{ "field": "value1" }, { "field": "value2" }]	[true, true]
[.[] | .field | select(. == "value")]	Filters elements of an array where a specific field equals a value.	[{ "field": "value" }, { "field": "value1" }]	["value"]
[.[] | select(length > 5)]	Filters elements with a length greater than 5.	["apple", "banana", "orange", "grape"]	["banana", "orange"]
[.[] | select(.field1 == "value" and .field2 > 10)]	Selects elements where both conditions are true.	[{"field1": "value", "field2": 15}, {"field1": "value", "field2": 20}]	[{"field1": "value", "field2": 15}, {"field1": "value", "field2": 20}]
[.[] | select(.field1 == "value" or .field2 > 10)]	Selects elements where at least one of the conditions is true.	[{"field1": "value", "field2": 5}, {"field1": "other_value", "field2": 15}]	[{"field1": "value", "field2": 5}, {"field1": "other_value", "field2": 15}]
[.[] | select(.field1 == "value" and .field2 < 10)]	Selects elements where both conditions are true.	[{ "field1": "value", "field2": 5 }, { "field1": "other_value", "field2": 15 }]	[{"field1": "value", "field2": 5}]
[.[] | select(.field1 == "value" and (.field2 > 10 or .field3 == "include"))]	Combines and and or conditions to filter elements where the first condition is true and either the second condition is true or the third condition is include.	[{"field1": "value", "field2": 5, "field3": "include"}]	[{"field1": "value", "field2": 5, "field3": "include"}]
[.[] | select(.field1 != "value")]	Selects elements where the field1 is not equal to value.	[{ "field1": "other_value", "field2": 15 }, { "field1": "value", "field2": 5 }]	[{"field1": "other_value", "field2": 15}]
[.[] | select(.field1 == "value" and (.field2 > 10 and .field3 == "include"))]	Combines and conditions to filter elements where the first condition is true and both the second and third conditions are true.	[{"field1": "value", "field2": 15, "field3": "include" }]	[{"field1": "value", "field2": 15, "field3": "include"}]
[.[] | select(.field1 == "value" or (.field2 > 10 and .field3 == "include"))]	Combines or conditions to filter elements where either the first condition is true or both the second and third conditions are true.	[{"field1": "other_value", "field2": 15, "field3": "include" }, { "field1": "value", "field2": 5, "field3": "include" }]	[{"field1": "other_value", "field2": 15, "field3": "include"}], [{"field1": "value", "field2": 5, "field3": "include"}]
[.[] | select(.field1 == "value" and .field2 > 10 and .field3 != "exclude")]	Combines multiple and conditions to filter elements where all conditions are true.	[{ "field1": "value", "field2": 15, "field3": "include" }]	[{"field1": "value", "field2": 15, "field3": "include"}]
[.[] | select(.field1 != "value" and (.field2 <= 10 or .field3 == "exclude"))]	Combines not and or conditions to filter elements where field1 is not equal to value and either field2 is less than or equal to 10 or field3 is exclude.	[{"field1": "other_value", "field2": 5, "field3": "exclude"}]	[{"field1": "other_value", "field2": 5, "field3": "exclude"}]
.[]|.foo>30 and .bar== "less interesting data"|.==true	Returns exactly true while executing rather than returning the values.	[{"foo": 42, "bar": "less interesting data"}]	true