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Listing paths

This features allows to list all the paths in the data. It can be useful to iterate over the values in a shell script and then play with the read, set, delete and add commands.

The examples on this page will refer to this JSON file that can be found in the playground (you might want to copy/paste or to download it somewhere to keep it in sight).
Note that any of the four People files could be used. 

{
  "Tom" : {
    "age" : 68,
    "hobbies" : [
      "cooking",
      "guitar"
    ],
    "height" : 175
  },
  "Robert" : {
    "age" : 23,
    "hobbies" : [
      "video games",
      "party",
      "tennis"
    ],
    "running_records" : [
      [
        10,
        12, 9,
        10
      ],
      [ 9,
        12,
        11
      ]
    ],
    "height" : 181
  },
  "Suzanne" : {
    "job" : "actress",
    "movies" : [
      {
        "title" : "Tomorrow is so far",
        "awards" : "Best speech for a silent movie"
      },
      {
        "title" : "Yesterday will never go",
        "awards" : "Best title"
      },
      {
        "title" : "What about today?"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Simple example

List all the paths in the file People.plist.

Use the option -i|--input to specify a file as input. Otherwise Scout can read the input stream. 

scout paths -i People.json -f json

Output

The function PathExplorer.listPath() will return an array of Paths in Swift. With the command-line tool, those paths are printed in the terminal. 

Robert
Robert.age
Robert.height
Robert.hobbies
Robert.hobbies[0]
Robert.hobbies[1]
Robert.hobbies[2]
Robert.running_records
Robert.running_records[0]
Robert.running_records[0][0]
Robert.running_records[0][1]
Robert.running_records[0][2]
Robert.running_records[0][3]
Robert.running_records[1]
Robert.running_records[1][0]
Robert.running_records[1][1]
Robert.running_records[1][2]
Suzanne
Suzanne.job
Suzanne.movies
Suzanne.movies[0]
Suzanne.movies[0].awards
Suzanne.movies[0].title
Suzanne.movies[1]
Suzanne.movies[1].awards
Suzanne.movies[1].title
Suzanne.movies[2]
Suzanne.movies[2].title
Tom
Tom.age
Tom.height
Tom.hobbies
Tom.hobbies[0]
Tom.hobbies[1]

Target single or group values

When listing paths, it's possible to target only single values (e.g. string, number...), group values (e.g. array, dictionary) or both. The default target is both single and group.

List all the paths leading to single values in the file People.xml. 

scout paths -i People.xml -f xml --single

Output

Robert.age
Robert.height
Robert.hobbies[0]
Robert.hobbies[1]
Robert.hobbies[2]
Robert.running_records[0][0]
Robert.running_records[0][1]
Robert.running_records[0][2]
Robert.running_records[0][3]
Robert.running_records[1][0]
Robert.running_records[1][1]
Robert.running_records[1][2]
Suzanne.job
Suzanne.movies[0].awards
Suzanne.movies[0].title
Suzanne.movies[1].awards
Suzanne.movies[1].title
Suzanne.movies[2].title
Tom.age
Tom.height
Tom.hobbies[0]
Tom.hobbies[1]

List all the paths leading to group values in the file People.xml. 

scout paths -i People.xml -f xml --group

Output

Robert
Robert.hobbies
Robert.running_records
Robert.running_records[0]
Robert.running_records[1]
Suzanne
Suzanne.movies
Suzanne.movies[0]
Suzanne.movies[1]
Suzanne.movies[2]
Tom
Tom.hobbies

Initial path

Optionally provide a path from which the paths should be listed. The special elements like array slices or dictionary keys filters are supported

List all the paths in the file People.yml in Robert dictionary. 

scout paths "Robert" -i People.yml -f yaml

Output

Robert.age
Robert.height
Robert.hobbies
Robert.hobbies[0]
Robert.hobbies[1]
Robert.hobbies[2]
Robert.running_records
Robert.running_records[0]
Robert.running_records[0][0]
Robert.running_records[0][1]
Robert.running_records[0][2]
Robert.running_records[0][3]
Robert.running_records[1]
Robert.running_records[1][0]
Robert.running_records[1][1]
Robert.running_records[1][2]


List all the paths in the file People.yml in Robert and Tom dictionary. 

scout paths -i People.yml -f yaml "#Robert|Tom#"

Output

Robert
Robert.age
Robert.height
Robert.hobbies
Robert.hobbies[0]
Robert.hobbies[1]
Robert.hobbies[2]
Robert.running_records
Robert.running_records[0]
Robert.running_records[0][0]
Robert.running_records[0][1]
Robert.running_records[0][2]
Robert.running_records[0][3]
Robert.running_records[1]
Robert.running_records[1][0]
Robert.running_records[1][1]
Robert.running_records[1][2]
Tom
Tom.age
Tom.height
Tom.hobbies
Tom.hobbies[0]
Tom.hobbies[1]


List all the paths leading to Suzanne's movies titles in the file People.yml. 

scout paths -i People.yml -f yaml "Suzanne.movies[:].title"

Output

Suzanne.movies[0].title
Suzanne.movies[1].title
Suzanne.movies[2].title


Filter the keys

It's possible to provide a regular expression to filter the paths final key. Only the paths whose final value is validated by the regular expression will be retrieved.

List all the paths leading to a key "hobbies" in the file People.json. 

scout paths -i People.json -f json -k "hobbies"

Output

Robert.hobbies
Robert.hobbies[0]
Robert.hobbies[1]
Robert.hobbies[2]
Tom.hobbies
Tom.hobbies[0]
Tom.hobbies[1]


List all the paths leading to a key starting with "h" in the file People.json. 

scout paths -i People.json -f json -k "h.*"

Output

Robert.height
Robert.hobbies
Robert.hobbies[0]
Robert.hobbies[1]
Robert.hobbies[2]
Tom.height
Tom.hobbies
Tom.hobbies[0]
Tom.hobbies[1]


Filter the values

The values can be filtered with one ore more predicates. When such a filter is speicified, only the single values are targeted.
A path whose value is validated by one of the provided predicates is retrieved.
A predicate will contain the variable 'value' that will be replaced to evaluate each value.


List the paths whose value is below 70. 

scout paths -i People.plist -f plist -v "value < 70"

Output

Robert.age
Robert.running_records[0][0]
Robert.running_records[0][1]
Robert.running_records[0][2]
Robert.running_records[0][3]
Robert.running_records[1][0]
Robert.running_records[1][1]
Robert.running_records[1][2]
Tom.age


List the paths whose value is greater than or equal to 20 and lesser than 70. 

scout paths -i People.plist -f plist -v "value >= 20 && value < 70"

Output

Robert.age
Tom.age


List the paths whose value starts with "guit" (case sensitive). 

scout paths -i People.json -f json -v "value hasPrefix 'guit'"

Output

Tom.hobbies[1]


List the paths whose value starts with "guit" or are greater than 20 (case sensitive). 

scout paths -i People.json -f json -v "value hasPrefix 'guit'" -v "value > 20"

Output

Robert.age
Robert.height
Tom.age
Tom.height
Tom.hobbies[1]

To learn more about the possibilities offered by the predicates, it's possible to run scout doc -a predicates or to read this dedicated page.


Mixing up

All the features to filter the path can be mixed up.

List paths leading to Robert hobbies that contain the word "game". 

scout paths -i People.yml -f yaml "Robert.hobbies" -v "value contains 'games'"

Output

Robert.hobbies[0]


List paths leading to Robert or Tom hobbies array (group values). 

scout paths -i People.yml -f yaml "#Tom|Robert#" -k "ho.*" --group

Output

Robert.hobbies
Tom.hobbies

List paths leading to Suzanne's movies titles that contains the word "today". 

scout paths -i People.json -f json "Suzanne.movies[:].title" -v "value contains 'today'"

Output

Suzanne.movies[2].title