Extract and manipulate parts of JSON files without touching the formatting and comments in other parts.

Installation

You can install the development version of tsjson from GitHub with:

# install.packages("pak")
pak::pak("gaborcsardi/tsjson")

Documentation

See at https://gaborcsardi.github.io/tsjson/ and also in the installed package: help(package = "tsjson").

Quickstart

Create a tjson object

Create a tsjson object from a string:

txt <- r"(
// this is a comment
{
  "a": {
    "a1": [1, 2, 3],
    // comment
    "a2": "string"
  },
  "b": [
    {
      "b11": true,
      "b12": false
    },
    {
      "b21": false,
      "b22": false
    }
  ]
}
)"
json <- load_json(text = txt)

Pretty print a tsjson object:

json

#> # json (19 lines)
#>  1 | 
#>  2 | // this is a comment
#>  3 | {
#>  4 |   "a": {
#>  5 |     "a1": [1, 2, 3],
#>  6 |     // comment
#>  7 |     "a2": "string"
#>  8 |   },
#>  9 |   "b": [
#> 10 |     {
#> ℹ 9 more lines
#> ℹ Use `print(n = ...)` to see more lines

Select elements in a tsjson object

Select element by objects key:

select(json, "a")

#> # json (19 lines, 1 selected element)
#>    1  | 
#>    2  | // this is a comment
#>    3  | {
#> >  4  |   "a": {
#> >  5  |     "a1": [1, 2, 3],
#> >  6  |     // comment
#> >  7  |     "a2": "string"
#> >  8  |   },
#>    9  |   "b": [
#>   10  |     {
#>   11  |       "b11": true,
#>   ...

Select element inside element:

select(json, "a", "a1")

#> # json (19 lines, 1 selected element)
#>   2   | // this is a comment
#>   3   | {
#>   4   |   "a": {
#> > 5   |     "a1": [1, 2, 3],
#>   6   |     // comment
#>   7   |     "a2": "string"
#>   8   |   },
#>   ...

Select element(s) of an array:

select(json, "a", "a1", 1:2)

#> # json (19 lines, 2 selected elements)
#>   2   | // this is a comment
#>   3   | {
#>   4   |   "a": {
#> > 5   |     "a1": [1, 2, 3],
#>   6   |     // comment
#>   7   |     "a2": "string"
#>   8   |   },
#>   ...

Select multiple keys from an object:

select(json, "a", c("a1", "a2"))

#> # json (19 lines, 2 selected elements)
#>    2  | // this is a comment
#>    3  | {
#>    4  |   "a": {
#> >  5  |     "a1": [1, 2, 3],
#>    6  |     // comment
#> >  7  |     "a2": "string"
#>    8  |   },
#>    9  |   "b": [
#>   10  |     {
#>   ...

Delete elements

Delete selected elements:

select(json, "a", "a1") |> delete_selected()

#> # json (18 lines)
#>  1 | 
#>  2 | // this is a comment
#>  3 | {
#>  4 |   "a": {
#>  5 |     // comment
#>  6 |     "a2": "string"
#>  7 |   },
#>  8 |   "b": [
#>  9 |     {
#> 10 |       "b11": true,
#> ℹ 8 more lines
#> ℹ Use `print(n = ...)` to see more lines

Insert elements

Insert element into an array:

select(json, "a", "a1") |> insert_into_selected(at = 2, "new")

#> # json (24 lines)
#>  1 | 
#>  2 | // this is a comment
#>  3 | {
#>  4 |   "a": {
#>  5 |     "a1": [
#>  6 |         1,
#>  7 |         2,
#>  8 |         "new",
#>  9 |         3
#> 10 |     ],
#> ℹ 14 more lines
#> ℹ Use `print(n = ...)` to see more lines

Inserting into an array reformats the array.

Insert element into an object, at the specified key:

select(json, "a") |>
  insert_into_selected(key = "a0", at = 0, list("new", "element"))

#> # json (27 lines)
#>  1 | 
#>  2 | // this is a comment
#>  3 | {
#>  4 |   "a": {
#>  5 |       "a0": [
#>  6 |           "new",
#>  7 |           "element"
#>  8 |       ],
#>  9 |       "a1": [
#> 10 |           1,
#> ℹ 17 more lines
#> ℹ Use `print(n = ...)` to see more lines

Update elements

Update existing element:

select(json, "a", c("a1", "a2")) |> update_selected("new value")

#> # json (19 lines)
#>  1 | 
#>  2 | // this is a comment
#>  3 | {
#>  4 |   "a": {
#>  5 |     "a1": "new value",
#>  6 |     // comment
#>  7 |     "a2": "new value"
#>  8 |   },
#>  9 |   "b": [
#> 10 |     {
#> ℹ 9 more lines
#> ℹ Use `print(n = ...)` to see more lines

Inserts the element if some parents are missing:

json <- load_json(text = "{ \"a\": { \"b\": true } }")
json

#> # json (1 line)
#> 1 | { "a": { "b": true } }

select(json, "a", "x", "y") |> update_selected(list(1,2,3))

#> # json (10 lines)
#>  1 | { "a": {
#>  2 |     "b": true,
#>  3 |     "x": {
#>  4 |         "y": [
#>  5 |             1,
#>  6 |             2,
#>  7 |             3
#>  8 |         ]
#>  9 |     }
#> 10 | } }

tsjson