jq · lesson 3 of 32 · Getting started

Array index & slice

Index arrays with [n] (zero-based; negative numbers count from the end) and slice them with [from:to] (the end is exclusive).

Example 1First, last and a range

Document

{ "langs": ["rust", "go", "c", "zig", "lua"] }

Query

.langs[0], .langs[-1], .langs[1:3]

.langs[0] The first element (index 0) → "rust".
.langs[-1] A negative index counts from the end → the last element, "lua".
.langs[1:3] A slice from index 1 up to, but not including, 3 → ["go","c"].

Result

"rust"
"lua"
["go","c"]

Try it in the playground

Good to know

Slices work on strings too, and either end may be left out: .[:2] or .[2:].