String interpolation

[11xx]

It would be great to print values with arbitraty text like jq's:

❯ echo '{"key1":"value1","key2":"value2"}' | jq '"The first key contains \(.key1), and the second, \"\(.key2)\""'
"The first key contains value1, and the second, \"value2\""

❯ echo '{"key1":"value1","key2":"value2"}' | jq -r '"The first key contains \(.key1), and the second, \"\(.key2)\""'
The first key contains value1, and the second, "value2"

Source: stedolan/jq#614

[01mf02]

I agree with you that this would be nice to have. The name of this functionality is called "string interpolation", and I have put it into the README among the jq functionality that jaq does not implement yet. However, I do not have the motivation to work on this myself. If you feel like implementing it, go ahead!

[nitsanavni]

Here's how I do it currently. Not as readable as I wished.

def interpolate: map(tostring) | add;
def s: if isarray then interpolate else tostring end;

def a: "a";
def b: "b";

# usage
["{ a: ", a, ", b: ", b, " }"] | s

[01mf02]

@nitsanavni, well, in that case you could just do something like "{ a: " + a + ", b: " + b + " }". :)

[01mf02]

@pkoppstein, couldn't you just write '"a1bc2" | gsub("(?<x>[a-z])[0-9]"; .x|ascii_upcase)'? Are there cases where this does not work?

[pkoppstein]

Yes. Not having string interpolation is a source of such frustration that I wasn’t thinking clearly. My apologies.

[01mf02]

Yes. Not having string interpolation is a source of such frustration that I wasn’t thinking clearly. My apologies.

No worries. :)

[01mf02]

This is now implemented in #109.