How to parse a JSON file to variables with the windows command line?

If you use Windows Powershell as your command line, you can use the ConvertFrom-JSON cmdlet: http://powershelljson.codeplex.com/

Make sure your PowerShell version is above 3.0, as ConvertFrom-JSON is available from that version.

If you use plain old CMD, you'll need an external tool for it. I like jq: http://stedolan.github.io/jq/. The tutorial uses curl for the examples, but you can just as easily use echo or read the JSON from a file.

PowerShell example.Create from file: $js = Get-Content file.json | ConvertFrom-Json.Get subkey: $js.key.subkey

I'd like to be able to read this file in the Windows command line and have these objects parsed as variables.

I'll interpret this as, you want to do:

SET min=0.5SET max=1.5

I'd recommend the powerful tool xidel for this task.

Basic command:

xidel -s test.json -e "$json/limit/min" -e "$json/limit/max"xidel -s test.json -e "$json/limit/(min,max)"

Whether you use 2 queries to return each value, or 1 query to return both values, both commands should return:

0.51.5

Export with custom variable-names:

FOR /F "delims=" %A IN ('xidel -s test.json -e "min:=$json/limit/min" -e "max:=$json/limit/max" --output-format^=cmd') DO %AFOR /F "delims=" %A IN ('xidel -s test.json -e "$json/limit/(min:=min,max:=max)" --output-format^=cmd') DO %A

Both commands do:

SET min=0.5SET max=1.5

Export with key-names as variable-names:

FOR /F "delims=" %A IN ('xidel -s test.json -e "$json/(limit)() ! eval(x'{.}:=$json/limit/{.}')[0]" --output-format^=cmd') DO %A

To answer my own question: FOR /F "delims=" %%i in ('type test.json ^| jq .limit.min') DO SET min=%%i

If that's all you want, then...

FOR /F "delims=" %A IN ('xidel -s test.json -e "$json/limit/min"') DO SET min=%A

or...

FOR /F "delims=" %A IN ('xidel -s test.json -e "min:=$json/limit/min" --output-format^=cmd') DO %A

...is all you need.