JMESPath Specification — JMESPath (original) (raw)

This document describes the specification for jmespath.

If you’d like an introduction to the JMESPath language, see the JMESPath Tutorial and the JMESPath Examples page.

In the specification, examples are shown through the use of a search function. The syntax for this function is:

search(, ) ->

For simplicity, the jmespath expression and the JSON document are not quoted. For example:

search(foo, {"foo": "bar"}) -> "bar"

The result of applying a JMESPath expression against a JSON document willalways result in valid JSON, provided there are no errors during the evaluation process. Structured data in, structured data out.

This also means that, with the exception of JMESPath expression types, JMESPath only supports the same types supported by JSON:

• number (integers and double-precision floating-point format in JSON)
• string
• boolean (true or false)
• array (an ordered, sequence of values)
• object (an unordered collection of key value pairs)
• null

Expression types are discussed in the Function Expressions section.

Implementations can map the corresponding JSON types to their language equivalent. For example, a JSON null could map to None in python, and nil in ruby and go.

Grammar¶

The grammar is specified using ABNF, as described in RFC4234

expression = sub-expression / index-expression / comparator-expression expression =/ or-expression / identifier expression =/ and-expression / not-expression / paren-expression expression =/ "" / multi-select-list / multi-select-hash / literal expression =/ function-expression / pipe-expression / raw-string expression =/ current-node sub-expression = expression "." ( identifier / multi-select-list / multi-select-hash / function-expression / "" ) pipe-expression = expression "|" expression or-expression = expression "||" expression and-expression = expression "&&" expression not-expression = "!" expression paren-expression = "(" expression ")" index-expression = expression bracket-specifier / bracket-specifier multi-select-list = "[" ( expression *( "," expression ) ) "]" multi-select-hash = "{" ( keyval-expr ( "," keyval-expr ) ) "}" keyval-expr = identifier ":" expression bracket-specifier = "[" (number / "" / slice-expression) "]" / "[]" bracket-specifier =/ "[?" expression "]" comparator-expression = expression comparator expression slice-expression = [number] ":" [number] [ ":" [number] ] comparator = "<" / "<=" / "==" / ">=" / ">" / "!=" function-expression = unquoted-string ( no-args / one-or-more-args ) no-args = "(" ")" one-or-more-args = "(" ( function-arg *( "," function-arg ) ) ")" function-arg = expression / expression-type current-node = "@" expression-type = "&" expression

raw-string = "'" raw-string-char "'" raw-string-char = (%x20-26 / %x28-5B / %x5D-10FFFF) / preserved-escape / raw-string-escape preserved-escape = escape (%x20-26 / %28-5B / %x5D-10FFFF) raw-string-escape = escape ("'" / escape) literal = "" json-value "" unescaped-literal = %x20-21 / ; space ! %x23-5B / ; # - [ %x5D-5F / ; ] ^ _ %x61-7A ; a-z %x7C-10FFFF ; |}~ ... escaped-literal = escaped-char / (escape %x60) number = ["-"]1digit digit = %x30-39 identifier = unquoted-string / quoted-string unquoted-string = (%x41-5A / %x61-7A / %x5F) ( ; A-Za-z_ %x30-39 / ; 0-9 %x41-5A / ; A-Z %x5F / ; _ %x61-7A) ; a-z quoted-string = quote 1(unescaped-char / escaped-char) quote unescaped-char = %x20-21 / %x23-5B / %x5D-10FFFF escape = %x5C ; Back slash:
quote = %x22 ; Double quote: '"' escaped-char = escape ( %x22 / ; " quotation mark U+0022 %x5C / ; \ reverse solidus U+005C %x2F / ; / solidus U+002F %x62 / ; b backspace U+0008 %x66 / ; f form feed U+000C %x6E / ; n line feed U+000A %x72 / ; r carriage return U+000D %x74 / ; t tab U+0009 %x75 4HEXDIG ) ; uXXXX U+XXXX

; The json-value is any valid JSON value with the one exception that the ; %x60 character must be escaped. While it's encouraged that implementations ; use any existing JSON parser for this grammar rule (after handling the escaped ; literal characters), the grammar rule is shown below for completeness::

json-value = false / null / true / json-object / json-array / json-number / json-quoted-string false = %x66.61.6c.73.65 ; false null = %x6e.75.6c.6c ; null true = %x74.72.75.65 ; true json-quoted-string = %x22 1*(unescaped-literal / escaped-literal) %x22 begin-array = ws %x5B ws ; [ left square bracket begin-object = ws %x7B ws ; { left curly bracket end-array = ws %x5D ws ; ] right square bracket end-object = ws %x7D ws ; } right curly bracket name-separator = ws %x3A ws ; : colon value-separator = ws %x2C ws ; , comma ws = *(%x20 / ; Space %x09 / ; Horizontal tab %x0A / ; Line feed or New line %x0D ; Carriage return ) json-object = begin-object [ member ( value-separator member ) ] end-object member = quoted-string name-separator json-value json-array = begin-array [ json-value ( value-separator json-value ) ] end-array json-number = [ minus ] int [ frac ] [ exp ] decimal-point = %x2E ; . digit1-9 = %x31-39 ; 1-9 e = %x65 / %x45 ; e E exp = e [ minus / plus ] 1DIGIT frac = decimal-point 1DIGIT int = zero / ( digit1-9 *DIGIT ) minus = %x2D ; - plus = %x2B ; + zero = %x30 ; 0

In addition to the grammar, there is the following token precedence that goes from weakest to tightest binding:

• pipe: |
• or: ||
• and: &&
• unary not: !
• rbracket: ]

Identifiers¶

identifier = unquoted-string / quoted-string unquoted-string = (%x41-5A / %x61-7A / %x5F) ( ; A-Za-z_ %x30-39 / ; 0-9 %x41-5A / ; A-Z %x5F / ; _ %x61-7A) ; a-z quoted-string = quote 1(unescaped-char / escaped-char) quote unescaped-char = %x20-21 / %x23-5B / %x5D-10FFFF escape = %x5C ; Back slash:
quote = %x22 ; Double quote: '"' escaped-char = escape ( %x22 / ; " quotation mark U+0022 %x5C / ; \ reverse solidus U+005C %x2F / ; / solidus U+002F %x62 / ; b backspace U+0008 %x66 / ; f form feed U+000C %x6E / ; n line feed U+000A %x72 / ; r carriage return U+000D %x74 / ; t tab U+0009 %x75 4HEXDIG ) ; uXXXX U+XXXX

An identifier is the most basic expression and can be used to extract a single element from a JSON document. The return value for an identifier is the value associated with the identifier. If the identifier does not exist in the JSON document, than a null value is returned.

From the grammar rule listed above identifiers can be one or more characters, and must start with A-Za-z_.

An identifier can also be quoted. This is necessary when an identifier has characters not specified in the unquoted-string grammar rule. In this situation, an identifier is specified with a double quote, followed by any number of unescaped-char or escaped-char characters, followed by a double quote. The quoted-string rule is the same grammar rule as a JSON string, so any valid string can be used between double quoted, include JSON supported escape sequences, and six character unicode escape sequences.

Note that any identifier that does not start with A-Za-z_ mustbe quoted.

Examples¶

search(foo, {"foo": "value"}) -> "value" search(bar, {"foo": "value"}) -> null search(foo, {"foo": [0, 1, 2]}) -> [0, 1, 2] search("with space", {"with space": "value"}) -> "value" search("special chars: !@#", {"special chars: !@#": "value"}) -> "value" search("quote"char", {"quote"char": "value"}) -> "value" search("\u2713", {"\u2713": "value"}) -> "value"

Errors¶

Errors may be raised during the JMEspath evaluation process. How and when errors are raised is implementation specific, but implementations should indicate to the caller when errors have occurred.

The following errors are defined:

• invalid-type is raised when an invalid type is encountered during the evaluation process.
• invalid-value is raised when an invalid value is encountered during the evaluation process.
• unknown-function is raised when an unknown function is encountered during the evaluation process.
• invalid-arity is raised when an invalid number of function arguments is encountered during the evaluation process.

SubExpressions¶

sub-expression = expression "." ( identifier / multi-select-list / multi-select-hash / function-expression / "*" )

A subexpression is a combination of two expressions separated by the ‘.’ char. A subexpression is evaluted as follows:

• Evaluate the expression on the left with the original JSON document.
• Evaluate the expression on the right with the result of the left expression evaluation.

In pseudocode:

left-evaluation = search(left-expression, original-json-document) result = search(right-expression, left-evaluation)

A subexpression is itself an expression, so there can be multiple levels of subexpressions: grandparent.parent.child.

Examples¶

Given a JSON document: {"foo": {"bar": "baz"}}, and a jmespath expression:foo.bar, the evaluation process would be:

left-evaluation = search("foo", {"foo": {"bar": "baz"}}) -> {"bar": "baz"} result = search("bar": {"bar": "baz"}) -> "baz"

The final result in this example is "baz".

Additional examples:

search(foo.bar, {"foo": {"bar": "value"}}) -> "value" search(foo."bar", {"foo": {"bar": "value"}}) -> "value" search(foo.bar, {"foo": {"baz": "value"}}) -> null search(foo.bar.baz, {"foo": {"bar": {"baz": "value"}}}) -> "value"

Index Expressions¶

index-expression = expression bracket-specifier / bracket-specifier bracket-specifier = "[" (number / "*") "]" / "[]"

An index expression is used to access elements in a list. Indexing is 0 based, the index of 0 refers to the first element of the list. A negative number is a valid index. A negative number indicates that indexing is relative to the end of the list, specifically:

negative-index == (length of array) + negative-index

Given an array of length N, an index of -1 would be equal to a positive index of N - 1, which is the last element of the list. If an index expression refers to an index that is greater than the length of the array, a value of null is returned.

For the grammar rule expression bracket-specifier the expression is first evaluated, and then return value from the expression is given as input to the bracket-specifier.

Using a “*” character within a bracket-specifier is discussed below in thewildcard expressions section.

Slices¶

slice-expression = [number] ":" [number] [ ":" [number] ]

A slice expression allows you to select a contiguous subset of an array. A slice has a start, stop, and step value. The general form of a slice is [start:stop:step], but each component is optional and can be omitted.

Note

Slices in JMESPath have the same semantics as python slices. If you’re familiar with python slices, you’re familiar with JMESPath slices.

Given a start, stop, and step value, the sub elements in an array are extracted as follows:

• The first element in the extracted array is the index denoted by start.
• The last element in the extracted array is the index denoted by end - 1.
• The step value determines how many indices to skip after each element is selected from the array. An array of 1 (the default step) will not skip any indices. A step value of 2 will skip every other index while extracting elements from an array. A step value of -1 will extract values in reverse order from the array.

Slice expressions adhere to the following rules:

• If a negative start position is given, it is calculated as the total length of the array plus the given start position.
• If no start position is given, it is assumed to be 0 if the given step is greater than 0 or the end of the array if the given step is less than 0.
• If a negative stop position is given, it is calculated as the total length of the array plus the given stop position.
• If no stop position is given, it is assumed to be the length of the array if the given step is greater than 0 or 0 if the given step is less than 0.
• If the given step is omitted, it it assumed to be 1.
• If the given step is 0, an invalid-value error MUST be raised.
• If the element being sliced is not an array, the result is null.
• If the element being sliced is an array and yields no results, the result MUST be an empty array.

Examples¶

search([0:4:1], [0, 1, 2, 3]) -> [0, 1, 2, 3] search([0:4], [0, 1, 2, 3]) -> [0, 1, 2, 3] search([0:3], [0, 1, 2, 3]) -> [0, 1, 2] search([:2], [0, 1, 2, 3]) -> [0, 1] search([::2], [0, 1, 2, 3]) -> [0, 2] search([::-1], [0, 1, 2, 3]) -> [3, 2, 1, 0] search([-2:], [0, 1, 2, 3]) -> [2, 3]

Flatten Operator¶

When the character sequence [] is provided as a bracket specifier, then a flattening operation occurs on the current result. The flattening operator will merge sublists in the current result into a single list. The flattening operator has the following semantics:

• Create an empty result list.
• Iterate over the elements of the current result.
• If the current element is not a list, add to the end of the result list.
• If the current element is a list, add each element of the current element to the end of the result list.
• The result list is now the new current result.

Once the flattening operation has been performed, subsequent operations are projected onto the flattened list with the same semantics as a wildcard expression. Thus the difference between [*] and [] is that[] will first flatten sublists in the current result.

Examples¶

search([0], ["first", "second", "third"]) -> "first" search([-1], ["first", "second", "third"]) -> "third" search([100], ["first", "second", "third"]) -> null search(foo[0], {"foo": ["first", "second", "third"]) -> "first" search(foo[100], {"foo": ["first", "second", "third"]) -> null search(foo[0][0], {"foo": [[0, 1], [1, 2]]}) -> 0

Or Expressions¶

or-expression = expression "||" expression

An or expression will evaluate to either the left expression or the right expression. If the evaluation of the left expression is not false it is used as the return value. If the evaluation of the right expression is not false it is used as the return value. If neither the left or right expression are non-null, then a value of null is returned. A false value corresponds to any of the following conditions:

• Empty list: []
• Empty object: {}
• Empty string: ""
• False boolean: false
• Null value: null

A true value corresponds to any value that is not false.

Examples¶

search(foo || bar, {"foo": "foo-value"}) -> "foo-value" search(foo || bar, {"bar": "bar-value"}) -> "bar-value" search(foo || bar, {"foo": "foo-value", "bar": "bar-value"}) -> "foo-value" search(foo || bar, {"baz": "baz-value"}) -> null search(foo || bar || baz, {"baz": "baz-value"}) -> "baz-value" search(override || mylist[-1], {"mylist": ["one", "two"]}) -> "two" search(override || mylist[-1], {"mylist": ["one", "two"], "override": "yes"}) -> "yes"

And Expressions¶

and-expression = expression "&&" expression

An and expression will evaluate to either the left expression or the right expression. If the expression on the left hand side is a truth-like value, then the value on the right hand side is returned. Otherwise the result of the expression on the left hand side is returned. This also reduces to the expected truth table:

Truth table for and expressions¶

This is the standard truth table for alogical conjunction (AND).

Examples¶

search(True && False, {"True": true, "False": false}) -> false search(Number && EmptyList, {"Number": 5, EmptyList: []}) -> [] search(foo[?a == 1 && b == 2], {"foo": [{"a": 1, "b": 2}, {"a": 1, "b": 3}]}) -> [{"a": 1, "b": 2}]

Paren Expressions¶

paren-expression = "(" expression ")"

A paren-expression allows a user to override the precedence order of an expression, e.g. (a || b) && c.

Examples¶

search(foo[?(a == 1 || b ==2) && c == 5], {"foo": [{"a": 1, "b": 2, "c": 3}, {"a": 3, "b": 4}]}) -> []

Not Expressions¶

not-expression = "!" expression

A not-expression negates the result of an expression. If the expression results in a truth-like value, a not-expression will change this value tofalse. If the expression results in a false-like value, anot-expression will change this value to true.

Examples¶

search(!True, {"True": true}) -> false search(!False, {"False": false}) -> true search(!Number, {"Number": 5}) -> false search(!EmptyList, {"EmptyList": []}) -> true

MultiSelect List¶

multi-select-list = "[" ( expression *( "," expression ) "]"

A multiselect expression is used to extract a subset of elements from a JSON hash. There are two version of multiselect, one in which the multiselect expression is enclosed in {...} and one which is enclosed in [...]. This section describes the [...] version. Within the start and closing characters is one or more non expressions separated by a comma. Each expression will be evaluated against the JSON document. Each returned element will be the result of evaluating the expression. A multi-select-list withN expressions will result in a list of length N. Given a multiselect expression [expr-1,expr-2,...,expr-n], the evaluated expression will return[evaluate(expr-1), evaluate(expr-2), ..., evaluate(expr-n)].

Examples¶

search([foo,bar], {"foo": "a", "bar": "b", "baz": "c"}) -> ["a", "b"] search([foo,bar[0]], {"foo": "a", "bar": ["b"], "baz": "c"}) -> ["a", "b"] search([foo,bar.baz], {"foo": "a", "bar": {"baz": "b"}}) -> ["a", "b"] search([foo,baz], {"foo": "a", "bar": "b"}) -> ["a", null]

MultiSelect Hash¶

multi-select-hash = "{" ( keyval-expr *( "," keyval-expr ) "}" keyval-expr = identifier ":" expression

A multi-select-hash expression is similar to a multi-select-listexpression, except that a hash is created instead of a list. Amulti-select-hash expression also requires key names to be provided, as specified in the keyval-expr rule. Given the following rule:

keyval-expr = identifier ":" expression

The identifier is used as the key name and the result of evaluating theexpression is the value associated with the identifier key.

Each keyval-expr within the multi-select-hash will correspond to a single key value pair in the created hash.

Examples¶

Given a multi-select-hash expression {foo: one.two, bar: bar} and the data {"bar": "bar", {"one": {"two": "one-two"}}}, the expression is evaluated as follows:

1. A hash is created: {}
2. A key foo is created whose value is the result of evaluating one.twoagainst the provided JSON document: {"foo": evaluate(one.two, <data>)}
3. A key bar is created whose value is the result of evaluting the expression bar against the provided JSON document.

The final result will be: {"foo": "one-two", "bar": "bar"}.

Additional examples:

search({foo: foo, bar: bar}, {"foo": "a", "bar": "b", "baz": "c"}) -> {"foo": "a", "bar": "b"} search({foo: foo, firstbar: bar[0]}, {"foo": "a", "bar": ["b"]}) -> {"foo": "a", "firstbar": "b"} search({foo: foo, "bar.baz": bar.baz}, {"foo": "a", "bar": {"baz": "b"}}) -> {"foo": "a", "bar.baz": "b"} search({foo: foo, baz: baz}, {"foo": "a", "bar": "b"}) -> {"foo": "a", "baz": null}

Wildcard Expressions¶

expression =/ "" bracket-specifier = "[" "" "]"

A wildcard expression is a expression of either * or [*]. A wildcard expression can return multiple elements, and the remaining expressions are evaluated against each returned element from a wildcard expression. The[*] syntax applies to a list type and the * syntax applies to a hash type.

The [*] syntax (referred to as a list wildcard expression) will return all the elements in a list. Any subsequent expressions will be evaluated against each individual element. Given an expression [*].child-expr, and a list of N elements, the evaluation of this expression would be [child-expr(el-0), child-expr(el-2), ..., child-expr(el-N)]. This is referred to as aprojection, and the child-expr expression is projected onto the elements of the resulting list.

Once a projection has been created, all subsequent expressions are projected onto the resulting list.

The * syntax (referred to as a hash wildcard expression) will return a list of the hash element’s values. Any subsequent expression will be evaluated against each individual element in the list (this is also referred to as aprojection).

Note that if any subsequent expression after a wildcard expression returns anull value, it is omitted from the final result list.

A list wildcard expression is only valid for the JSON array type. If a list wildcard expression is applied to any other JSON type, a value of null is returned.

Similarly, a hash wildcard expression is only valid for the JSON object type. If a hash wildcard expression is applied to any other JSON type, a value ofnull is returned. Note that JSON hashes are explicitly defined as unordered. Therefore a hash wildcard expression can return the values associated with the hash in any order. Implementations are not required to return the hash values in any specific order.

Examples¶

search([].foo, [{"foo": 1}, {"foo": 2}, {"foo": 3}]) -> [1, 2, 3] search([].foo, [{"foo": 1}, {"foo": 2}, {"bar": 3}]) -> [1, 2] search('*.foo', {"a": {"foo": 1}, "b": {"foo": 2}, "c": {"bar": 1}}) -> [1, 2]

Literal Expressions¶

literal = "" json-value ""

A literal expression is an expression that allows arbitrary JSON objects to be specified. This is useful in filter expressions as well as multi select hashes (to create arbitrary key value pairs), but is allowed anywhere an expression is allowed. The specification includes the ABNF for JSON, implementations should use an existing JSON parser to parse literal values. Note that the` character must now be escaped in a json-value which means implementations need to handle this case before passing the resulting string to a JSON parser.

Examples¶

search("foo", "anything") -> "foo" search("foo\bar", "anything") -> "foobar" search([1, 2], "anything") -> [1, 2] search(true, "anything") -> true search({"a": "b"}.a, "anything") -> "b" search({first: a, type: "mytype"}, {"a": "b", "c": "d"}) -> {"first": "b", "type": "mytype"}

Raw String Literals¶

raw-string = "'" *raw-string-char "'" raw-string-char = (%x20-26 / %x28-5B / %x5D-10FFFF) / preserved-escape / raw-string-escape preserved-escape = escape (%x20-26 / %28-5B / %x5D-10FFFF) raw-string-escape = escape ("'" / escape)

A raw string is an expression that allows for a literal string value to be specified. The result of evaluating the raw string literal expression is the literal string value. It is a simpler form of a literal expression that is special cased for strings. For example, the following expressions both evaluate to the same value: “foo”:

search("foo", "") -> "foo" search('foo', "") -> "foo"

As you can see in the examples above, it is meant as a more succinct form of the common scenario of specifying a literal string value.

In addition, it does not perform any of the additional processing that JSON strings supports including:

• Not expanding unicode escape sequences
• Not expanding newline characters
• Not expanding tab characters or any other escape sequences documented in RFC 4627 section 2.5.

search('foo', "") -> "foo" search(' bar ', "") -> " bar " search('[baz]', "") -> "[baz]" search('[baz]', "") -> "[baz]" search('\u03a6', "") -> "\u03a6" search('\', "") -> "\"

Filter Expressions¶

list-filter-expr = "[?" expression "]" comparator-expression = expression comparator expression comparator = "<" / "<=" / "==" / ">=" / ">" / "!="

A filter expression provides a way to select JSON elements based on a comparison to another expression. A filter expression is evaluated as follows: for each element in an array evaluate the expression against the element. If the expression evalutes to a truth-like value, the item (in its entirety) is added to the result list. Otherwise it is excluded from the result list. A filter expression is only defined for a JSON array. Attempting to evaluate a filter expression against any other type will return null.

Comparison Operators¶

The following operations are supported:

• ==, tests for equality.
• !=, tests for inequality.
• <, less than.
• <=, less than or equal to.
• >, greater than.
• >=, greater than or equal to.

The behavior of each operation is dependent on the type of each evaluated expression.

The comparison semantics for each operator are defined below based on the corresponding JSON type:

Equality Operators¶

For string/number/true/false/null types, equality is an exact match. Astring is equal to another string if they they have the exact sequence of code points. The literal values true/false/null are only equal to their own literal values. Two JSON objects are equal if they have the same set of keys and values (given two JSON objeccts x and y, for each key value pair (i, j) in x, there exists an equivalent pair (i, j) in y). Two JSON arrays are equal if they have equal elements in the same order (given two arrays x and y, for each i from 0 until length(x),x[i] == y[i]).

Ordering Operators¶

Ordering operators >, >=, <, <= are only valid for numbers. Evaluating any other type with a comparison operator will yield a nullvalue, which will result in the element being excluded from the result list. For example, given:

search('foo[?a<b]', {"foo": [{"a": "char", "b": "char"}, {"a": 2, "b": 1}, {"a": 1, "b": 2}]})

The three elements in the foo list are evaluated against a < b. The first element resolves to the comparison "char" < "bar", and because these types are string, the expression results in null, so the first element is not included in the result list. The second element resolves to 2 < 1, which is false, so the second element is excluded from the result list. The third expression resolves to 1 < 2 which evalutes to true, so the third element is included in the list. The final result of that expression is [{"a": 1, "b": 2}].

Examples¶

search(foo[?bar==10], {"foo": [{"bar": 1}, {"bar": 10}]}) -> [{"bar": 10}] search([?bar==10], [{"bar": 1}, {"bar": 10}]}) -> [{"bar": 10}] search(foo[?a==b], {"foo": [{"a": 1, "b": 2}, {"a": 2, "b": 2}]}) -> [{"a": 2, "b": 2}]

Function Expressions¶

function-expression = unquoted-string ( no-args / one-or-more-args ) no-args = "(" ")" one-or-more-args = "(" ( function-arg *( "," function-arg ) ) ")" function-arg = expression / current-node / expression-type current-node = "@" expression-type = "&" expression

Functions allow users to easily transform and filter data in JMESPath expressions.

Data Types¶

In order to support functions, a type system is needed. The JSON types are used:

• number (integers and double-precision floating-point format in JSON)
• string
• boolean (true or false)
• array (an ordered, sequence of values)
• object (an unordered collection of key value pairs)
• null

There is also an additional type that is not a JSON type that’s used in JMESPath functions:

• expression (denoted by &expression)

current-node¶

The current-node token can be used to represent the current node being evaluated. The current-node token is useful for functions that require the current node being evaluated as an argument. For example, the following expression creates an array containing the total number of elements in thefoo object followed by the value of foo["bar"].

JMESPath assumes that all function arguments operate on the current node unless the argument is a literal or number token. Because of this, an expression such as @.bar would be equivalent to just bar, so the current node is only allowed as a bare expression.

current-node state¶

At the start of an expression, the value of the current node is the data being evaluated by the JMESPath expression. As an expression is evaluated, the value the the current node represents MUST change to reflect the node currently being evaluated. When in a projection, the current node value must be changed to the node currently being evaluated by the projection.

Function Evaluation¶

Functions are evaluated in applicative order. Each argument must be an expression, each argument expression must be evaluated before evaluating the function. The function is then called with the evaluated function arguments. The result of the function-expression is the result returned by the function call. If a function-expression is evaluated for a function that does not exist, the JMESPath implementation must indicate to the caller that anunknown-function error occurred. How and when this error is raised is implementation specific, but implementations should indicate to the caller that this specific error occurred.

Functions can either have a specific arity or be variadic with a minimum number of arguments. If a function-expression is encountered where the arity does not match or the minimum number of arguments for a variadic function is not provided, then implementations must indicate to the caller than aninvalid-arity error occurred. How and when this error is raised is implementation specific.

Each function signature declares the types of its input parameters. If any type constraints are not met, implementations must indicate that aninvalid-type error occurred.

In order to accommodate type contraints, functions are provided to convert types to other types (to_string, to_number) which are defined below. No explicit type conversion happens unless a user specifically uses one of these type conversion functions.

Function expressions are also allowed as the child element of a sub expression. This allows functions to be used with projections, which can enable functions to be applied to every element in a projection. For example, given the input data of ["1", "2", "3", "notanumber", true], the following expression can be used to convert (and filter) all elements to numbers:

search([].to_number(@), ["1", "2", "3", "notanumber", true]) -> [1, 2, 3]

This provides a simple mechanism to explicitly convert types when needed.

Built-in Functions¶

JMESPath has various built-in functions that operate on different data types, documented below. Each function below has a signature that defines the expected types of the input and the type of the returned output:

return_type function_name(type $argname) return_type function_name2(type1|type2 $argname)

The list of data types supported by a function are:

• number (integers and double-precision floating-point format in JSON)
• string
• boolean (true or false)
• array (an ordered, sequence of values)
• object (an unordered collection of key value pairs)
• null
• expression (denoted by &expression)

With the exception of the last item, all of the above types correspond to the types provided by JSON.

If a function can accept multiple types for an input value, then the multiple types are separated with |. If the resolved arguments do not match the types specified in the signature, an invalid-type error occurs.

The array type can further specify requirements on the type of the elements if they want to enforce homogeneous types. The subtype is surrounded by[type], for example, the function signature below requires its input argument resolves to an array of numbers:

return_type foo(array[number] $argname)

As a shorthand, the type any is used to indicate that the argument can be of any type (array|object|number|string|boolean|null).

JMESPath functions are required to type check their input arguments. Specifying an invalid type for a function argument will result in ainvalid-type error.

The expression type, denoted by &expression, is used to specify a expression that is not immediately evaluated. Instead, a reference to that expression is provided to the function being called. The function can then choose to apply the expression reference as needed. It is semantically similar to an anonymous function. See the sort_by function for an example usage of the expression type.

Similarly how arrays can specify a type within a list using thearray[type] syntax, expressions can specify their resolved type usingexpression->type syntax. This means that the resolved type of the function argument must be an expression that itself will resolve to type.

The first function below, abs is discussed in detail to demonstrate the above points. Subsequent function definitions will not include these details for brevity, but the same rules apply.

Note

All string related functions are defined on the basis of Unicode code points; they do not take normalization into account.

abs¶

number abs(number $value)

Returns the absolute value of the provided argument. The signature indicates that a number is returned, and that the input argument $value mustresolve to a number, otherwise a invalid-type error is triggered.

Below is a worked example. Given:

Evaluating abs(foo) works as follows:

1. Evaluate the input argument against the current data:
   search(foo, {"foo": -1, "bar": "2"}) -> -1
2. Validate the type of the resolved argument. In this case-1 is of type number so it passes the type check.
3. Call the function with the resolved argument:
4. The value of 1 is the resolved value of the function expressionabs(foo).

Below is the same steps for evaluating abs(bar):

1. Evaluate the input argument against the current data:
   search(bar, {"foo": -1, "bar": "2"}) -> "2"
2. Validate the type of the resolved argument. In this case"2" is of type string so we immediately indicate that an invalid-type error occurred.

As a final example, here is the steps for evaluating abs(to_number(bar)):

1. Evaluate the input argument against the current data:
   search(to_number(bar), {"foo": -1, "bar": "2"})
2. In order to evaluate the above expression, we need to evaluateto_number(bar):
   search(bar, {"foo": -1, "bar": "2"}) -> "2"

Validate "2" passes the type check for to_number, which it does.

to_number("2") -> 2
Note that to_number is defined below. 3. Now we can evaluate the original expression:
search(to_number(bar), {"foo": -1, "bar": "2"}) -> 2 4. Call the function with the final resolved value: 5. The value of 2 is the resolved value of the function expressionabs(to_number(bar)).

Examples¶

avg¶

number avg(array[number] $elements)

Returns the average of the elements in the provided array.

An empty array will produce a return value of null.

Examples¶

contains¶

boolean contains(array|string subject,anysubject, any subject,anysearch)

Returns true if the given $subject contains the provided $searchstring.

If $subject is an array, this function returns true if one of the elements in the array is equal to the provided $search value.

If the provided $subject is a string, this function returns true if the string contains the provided $search argument.

Examples¶

ceil¶

number ceil(number $value)

Returns the next highest integer value by rounding up if necessary.

Examples¶

ends_with¶

boolean ends_with(string subject,stringsubject, string subject,stringprefix)

Returns true if the $subject ends with the $prefix, otherwise this function returns false.

Examples¶

floor¶

number floor(number $value)

Returns the next lowest integer value by rounding down if necessary.

Examples¶

join¶

string join(string glue,array[string]glue, array[string] glue,array[string]stringsarray)

Returns all of the elements from the provided $stringsarray array joined together using the $glue argument as a separator between each.

Examples¶

keys¶

Returns an array containing the keys of the provided object. Note that because JSON hashes are inheritently unordered, the keys associated with the provided object obj are inheritently unordered. Implementations are not required to return keys in any specific order.

Examples¶

length¶

number length(string|array|object $subject)

Returns the length of the given argument using the following types rules:

1. string: returns the number of code points in the string
2. array: returns the number of elements in the array
3. object: returns the number of key-value pairs in the object

Examples¶

map¶

array[any] map(expression->any->any expr, array[any] elements)

Apply the expr to every element in the elements array and return the array of results. An elements of length N will produce a return array of length N.

Unlike a projection, ([*].bar), map() will include the result of applying the expr for every element in theelements array, even if the result if null.

Examples¶

max¶

number max(array[number]|array[string] $collection)

Returns the highest found number in the provided array argument.

An empty array will produce a return value of null.

Examples¶

max_by¶

max_by(array elements, expression->number|expression->string expr)

Return the maximum element in an array using the expression expr as the comparison key. The entire maximum element is returned. Below are several examples using the people array (defined above) as the given input.

Examples¶

merge¶

object merge([object *argument, [, object $...]])

Accepts 0 or more objects as arguments, and returns a single object with subsequent objects merged. Each subsequent object’s key/value pairs are added to the preceding object. This function is used to combine multiple objects into one. You can think of this as the first object being the base object, and each subsequent argument being overrides that are applied to the base object.

Examples¶

min¶

number min(array[number]|array[string] $collection)

Returns the lowest found number in the provided $collection argument.

Examples¶

min_by¶

min_by(array elements, expression->number|expression->string expr)

Return the minimum element in an array using the expression expr as the comparison key. The entire maximum element is returned. Below are several examples using the people array (defined above) as the given input.

Examples¶

not_null¶

any not_null([any argument[,anyargument [, any argument[,any...]])

Returns the first argument that does not resolve to null. This function accepts one or more arguments, and will evaluate them in order until a non null argument is encounted. If all arguments values resolve to null, then a value of null is returned.

Examples¶

reverse¶

array reverse(string|array $argument)

Reverses the order of the $argument.

Examples¶

sort¶

array sort(array[number]|array[string] $list)

This function accepts an array $list argument and returns the sorted elements of the $list as an array.

The array must be a list of strings or numbers. Sorting strings is based on code points. Locale is not taken into account.

Examples¶

sort_by¶

sort_by(array elements, expression->number|expression->string expr)

Sort an array using an expression expr as the sort key. For each element in the array of elements, the expr expression is applied and the resulting value is used as the key used when sorting the elements.

If the result of evaluating the expr against the current array element results in type other than a number or a string, an invalid-typeerror will occur.

Below are several examples using the people array (defined above) as the given input. sort_by follows the same sorting logic as the sortfunction.

Examples¶

starts_with¶

boolean starts_with(string subject,stringsubject, string subject,stringprefix)

Returns true if the $subject starts with the $prefix, otherwise this function returns false.

Examples¶

sum¶

number sum(array[number] $collection)

Returns the sum of the provided array argument.

An empty array will produce a return value of 0.

Examples¶

to_array¶

• array - Returns the passed in value.
• number/string/object/boolean - Returns a one element array containing the passed in argument.

Examples¶

to_string¶

string to_string(any $arg)

• string - Returns the passed in value.
• number/array/object/boolean - The JSON encoded value of the object. The JSON encoder should emit the encoded JSON value without adding any additional new lines.

Examples¶

to_number¶

number to_number(any $arg)

• string - Returns the parsed number. Any string that conforms to thejson-number production is supported. Note that the floating number support will be implementation specific, but implementations should support at least IEEE 754-2008 binary64 (double precision) numbers, as this is generally available and widely used.
• number - Returns the passed in value.
• array - null
• object - null
• boolean - null
• null - null

type¶

string type(array|object|string|number|boolean|null $subject)

Returns the JavaScript type of the given $subject argument as a string value.

The return value MUST be one of the following:

• number
• string
• boolean
• array
• object
• null

Examples¶

values¶

array values(object $obj)

Returns the values of the provided object. Note that because JSON hashes are inheritently unordered, the values associated with the provided object obj are inheritently unordered. Implementations are not required to return values in any specific order. For example, given the input:

{"a": "first", "b": "second", "c": "third"}

The expression values(@) could have any of these return values:

• ["first", "second", "third"]
• ["first", "third", "second"]
• ["second", "first", "third"]
• ["second", "third", "first"]
• ["third", "first", "second"]
• ["third", "second", "first"]

If you would like a specific order, consider using thesort or sort_by functions.

Examples¶

Pipe Expressions¶

pipe-expression = expression "|" expression

A pipe expression combines two expressions, separated by the | character. It is similar to a sub-expression with two important distinctions:

1. Any expression can be used on the right hand side. A sub-expressionrestricts the type of expression that can be used on the right hand side.
2. A pipe-expression stops projections on the left hand side for propagating to the right hand side. If the left expression creates a projection, it does not apply to the right hand side.

For example, given the following data:

{"foo": [{"bar": ["first1", "second1"]}, {"bar": ["first2", "second2"]}]}

The expression foo[*].bar gives the result of:

[ [ "first1", "second1" ], [ "first2", "second2" ] ]

The first part of the expression, foo[*], creates a projection. At this point, the remaining expression, bar is projected onto each element of the list created from foo[*]. If you project the [0] expression, you will get the first element from each sub list. The expression foo[*].bar[0]will return:

If you instead wanted only the first sub list, ["first1", "second1"], you can use a pipe-expression:

foo[].bar[0] -> ["first1", "first2"] foo[].bar | [0] -> ["first1", "second1"]

Examples¶

search(foo | bar, {"foo": {"bar": "baz"}}) -> "baz" search(foo[*].bar | [0], { "foo": [{"bar": ["first1", "second1"]}, {"bar": ["first2", "second2"]}]}) -> ["first1", "second1"] search(foo | [0], {"foo": [0, 1, 2]}) -> [0]