jq -n reduce range fails with shell variable input

Question

I have a bash function like below.

function createJson
{
START=1
END=100    
jq -n 'reduce range($START; $END) as $data (.; . + [{"field": { "empID": $data, "location": "India"}}])'  > test.json    
}

The above script works fine If I mention the direct numeric value in "reduce range". For Example:

jq -n 'reduce range(0; 100) as $data (.; . + [{"field": { "empID": $data, "location": "India"}}])'  > test.json

But when I tried to pass the shell variable to jq -n reduce range it throws error like below.

jq: error: START/0 is not defined at <top-level>, line 1:
reduce range($START; $END) as $data (.; . + [{"field": { "empID": $data, "location": "India"}}])
jq: error: END/0 is not defined at <top-level>, line 1:
reduce range($START; $END) as $data (.; . + [{"field": { "empID": $data, "location": "India"}}])
jq: 2 compile errors

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered May 18 '20 at 09:51

START and END are not visible to JQ as they're shell variables. You need to pass them to JQ as arguments or environment variables.

jq -n --argjson START 1 --argjson END 100 'reduce range($START; $END) as $data (.; . + [{"field": { "empID": $data, "location": "India"}}])' > test.json

jq -n reduce range fails with shell variable input

1 Answers1