Tutorials on Command Line

Learn about Command Line from fellow newline community members!

  • React
  • Angular
  • Vue
  • Svelte
  • NextJS
  • Redux
  • Apollo
  • Storybook
  • D3
  • Testing Library
  • JavaScript
  • TypeScript
  • Node.js
  • Deno
  • Rust
  • Python
  • GraphQL
  • React
  • Angular
  • Vue
  • Svelte
  • NextJS
  • Redux
  • Apollo
  • Storybook
  • D3
  • Testing Library
  • JavaScript
  • TypeScript
  • Node.js
  • Deno
  • Rust
  • Python
  • GraphQL

Processing JSON with jq

Commonly, we process JSON data by writing a program to load, deserialize and manipulate this data. Depending on the programming language, this program may require an additional compilation step before being executed within a terminal. For simple operations, such as filtering and mapping, we don't need to write an additional program to perform these operations on our JSON data. Rather, we can directly manipulate our JSON data within a terminal via the jq command-line utility, which allows the editing of streamed JSON data without an interactive text editor interface (" sed for JSON"). If you're looking for a tool to retrieve JSON data from an API endpoint, process this data and save the result to a CSV, TSV or JSON file, then jq easily accomplishes this task in a single-line command. Below, I'm going to show you how to process JSON data with jq .

Thumbnail Image of Tutorial Processing JSON with jq

Searching with find and grep

If you work within a disorganized workspace with deeply nested folders and try locating a specific folder, file or code snippet, then your productivity suffers from the constant distraction of manually searching through the workspace. Navigating the workspace and rummaging through every folder (double-clicking each one) to find a single folder or file becomes repetitive and directs attention away from your work. If you forget to close the folders after exploring them, then these opened folders accumulate over time and obstruct subsequent searches by cluttering the screen. Additionally, a computer's file explorer, such as Mac's Finder or Ubuntu's Nautilus, slows down when loading and displaying folders and files within large external hard-drives, thumb drives or SD cards filled (or nearly filled) to maximum capacity. Operating systems based on the UNIX kernel provide the find and grep command-line utilities to search for files/folders and text within a file respectively via pattern matching. With a single-line command, you avoid interacting with the interface of the computer's file explorer. Instead, the command prints the search results to standard output ( stdout ) displayed within the terminal. Both the find and grep commands are considered as some of the most essential building blocks in bash scripting! Knowing how to use them allows you to integrate them into your continuous integration (CI) pipeline to automate search tasks. Below, I'm going to show you:

Thumbnail Image of Tutorial Searching with find and grep

I got a job offer, thanks in a big part to your teaching. They sent a test as part of the interview process, and this was a huge help to implement my own Node server.

This has been a really good investment!

Advance your career with newline Pro.

Only $30 per month for unlimited access to over 60+ books, guides and courses!

Learn More