[sethish]

This would be more suitable to large json files if used with the `--stream` flag. Here's my take on it:

  jq -c --stream '
    . as $in 
    | select(length == 2) 
    | (
      $in[0] | map(
        if type == "number" 
        then "[" + tostring + "]" 
        else "." + . 
        end
      ) | add
    ) + " = " + ($in[1] | tostring)'

Using `--stream` allows jq to start before parsing the entire json file. In my experience, a 700mb json file can take up 5gb of ram in either jq or python -m json.

[jolmg]

You're right about `--stream`, but you didn't need the variable assignment. Also, `-c`, besides the fact that it's not available in jq-1.5 which some people are using, is very pointless in this situation, since we're looking to output text, and `-c` is for outputting objects/arrays in a compact format. The fact that `-r` wasn't used causes jq to output the text encoded as json strings. So, instead of outputting:

  .movie.name = "Interstellar"
  .movie.year = 2014
  .movie.is_released = true
  .movie.else = "Christopher Nolan"
  .movie.cast[0] = "Matthew McConaughey"
  .movie.cast[1] = "Anne Hathaway"
  .movie.cast[2] = "Jessica Chastain"
  .movie.cast[3] = "Bill Irwin"
  .movie.cast[4] = "Ellen \\\\ Burstyn"
  .movie.cast[5] = "Michael Caine"

You're outputting:

  ".movie.name = Interstellar"
  ".movie.year = 2014"
  ".movie.is_released = true"
  ".movie.else = Christopher Nolan"
  ".movie.cast[0] = Matthew McConaughey"
  ".movie.cast[1] = Anne Hathaway"
  ".movie.cast[2] = Jessica Chastain"
  ".movie.cast[3] = Bill Irwin"
  ".movie.cast[4] = Ellen \\\\ Burstyn"
  ".movie.cast[5] = Michael Caine"

Another point is how the strings at the right of the `=` are displayed. They should be quoted. The reason why they're not is because you piped the second element to `tostring` instead of `@json`.

A better version of your suggestion would've been:

  jq -r --stream '   
    select(length > 1)  
    | (
      .[0] | map(
        if type == "number"
        then "[" + tostring + "]"
        else "." + .
        end
      ) | add
    ) + " = " + (.[1] | @json)
  '

The use of `length > 1` instead of `length == 2` is a minor point, but if a future version jq decides to sometimes put 3 elements in these arrays, your filter would ignore those when we're likely to also want those. `length > 1` ensures what we need, that there are at least the elements that we're going to be using, while `length == 2` might filter some of those out, even if it's not right now.

Your use of `add` is neat, though. I wouldn't have thought of that.

[facorreia]

Thanks! I've made a gist out of it:

https://gist.github.com/fernandoacorreia/4b67a41bbe227654868...