how to escape special character colon (':') in jsonpath

Question

Json:

{
    "im:rating": {
        "label": "1"
    }
}

While trying to use Jsonpath in groovy If i am using this '$.im:rating'

It is showing following error

Caused by: com.nebhale.jsonpath.InvalidJsonPathExpressionException: Illegal
character 'PathCharacter [types=[], value=:, position=4]' $.im:rating ----^ Illegal character 'PathCharacter [types=[SIMPLE_NAME_CHARACTER, LETTER, COMPLEX_NAME_CHARACTER], value=r, position=5]' $.im:rating -----^ Illegal character 'PathCharacter [types=[SIMPLE_NAME_CHARACTER, LETTER, COMPLEX_NAME_CHARACTER], value=a, position=6]' $.im:rating ------^ Illegal character 'PathCharacter [types=[SIMPLE_NAME_CHARACTER, LETTER, COMPLEX_NAME_CHARACTER], value=t, position=7]' $.im:rating -------^ Illegal character 'PathCharacter [types=[SIMPLE_NAME_CHARACTER, LETTER, COMPLEX_NAME_CHARACTER], value=i, position=8]' $.im:rating --------^ Illegal character 'PathCharacter [types=[SIMPLE_NAME_CHARACTER, LETTER, COMPLEX_NAME_CHARACTER], value=n, position=9]' $.im:rating ---------^ Illegal character 'PathCharacter [types=[SIMPLE_NAME_CHARACTER, LETTER, COMPLEX_NAME_CHARACTER], value=g, position=10]' $.im:rating ----------^
  at com.nebhale.jsonpath.JsonPath.compile(JsonPath.java:85)
  at com.nebhale.jsonpath.JsonPath.read(JsonPath.java:182)

Hi kaushik, Did you solve this problem? How did you escape the ":" with nebhale json parser library? — Sandeep Shetty, Apr 27 '20 at 13:28

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 25 '20 at 18:08

$['im:rating']

Selects the specified property in a parent object. Be sure to put single quotes around the property name. Tip: Use this notation if the property name contains special characters such as spaces, or begins with a character other than A..Za..z_. https://support.smartbear.com/alertsite/docs/monitors/api/endpoint/jsonpath.html

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 14 '18 at 09:38

I'm assuming you are using the JsonPath library at:

https://github.com/nebhale/JsonPath

In general it is bad form on stack overflow to not post a proper code example and not refer to the exact library (including version) you are using. Without this information the community is left guessing and doing research on your part.

With that said, my take would be that this is a limitation of that specific JsonPath library and as far as I understand it, it is in this specific case not adhering to the json specification.

The following code:

@Grab('com.nebhale.jsonpath:jsonpath:1.2')
import com.nebhale.jsonpath.*

def path = JsonPath.compile('$.im:rating')

when run, results in the error you are describing.

If we instead try using the built-in groovy JsonSlurper:

import groovy.json.*

def json = '''\
{
    "im:rating": {
        "label": "1"
    }
}'''

def parsed = new JsonSlurper().parseText(json)
println "value: ${parsed['im:rating']}"

we get:

~> groovy use_slurper_instead.groovy
value: [label:1]

i.e. there are no problems using keys with : characters in them. I would raise an issue with JsonPath.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 14 '18 at 18:42

1

We can access alternatively with the following

'$..label'

answered Nov 14 '18 at 18:42

kaushik

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how to escape special character colon (':') in jsonpath

3 Answers3