JSON Tables in the Terminal

The other day I was looking around for a simple command-line tool to print JSON and JSON Lines data to a table in the terminal. I found a few programs that can do it with some massaging of the data, like visidata, jt, and json-table, but these really didn’t meet my requirements.

I wanted to pipe JSON or JSON Lines data into a program and get a nicely formatted table with correct headers without any additional configuration or arguments. I also wanted it to automatically fit the terminal width and wrap or truncate the columns to fit the data with no complicated configuration. Basically, I just wanted it to “do the right thing” so I can view JSON data in a tabular format without any fuss.

I ended up creating a little command-line utility called jtbl that does exactly that:

$ cat cities.json | jtbl 
  LatD    LatM    LatS  NS      LonD    LonM    LonS  EW    City               State
------  ------  ------  ----  ------  ------  ------  ----  -----------------  -------
    41       5      59  N         80      39       0  W     Youngstown         OH
    42      52      48  N         97      23      23  W     Yankton            SD
    46      35      59  N        120      30      36  W     Yakima             WA
    42      16      12  N         71      48       0  W     Worcester          MA
    43      37      48  N         89      46      11  W     Wisconsin Dells    WI
    36       5      59  N         80      15       0  W     Winston-Salem      NC
    49      52      48  N         97       9       0  W     Winnipeg           MB

jtbl is simple and elegant. It just takes in piped JSON or JSON Lines data and prints a table. There’s only one option to turn on column truncation vs. wrapping columns if the terminal width is too narrow to display the complete table.

$ jtbl -h
jtbl:   Converts JSON and JSON Lines to a table

Usage:  <JSON Data> | jtbl [OPTIONS]

        -t  truncate data instead of wrapping if too long for the terminal width
        -v  version info
        -h  help

Here’s an example using a relatively slim terminal width of 75:

$ jc dig www.cnn.com | jq '.[].answer' | jtbl 
╒═════════════════╤═════════╤════════╤═══════╤═════════════════╕
│ name            │ class   │ type   │   ttl │ data            │
╞═════════════════╪═════════╪════════╪═══════╪═════════════════╡
│ www.cnn.com.    │ IN      │ CNAME  │   201 │ turner-tls.map. │
│                 │         │        │       │ fastly.net.     │
├─────────────────┼─────────┼────────┼───────┼─────────────────┤
│ turner-tls.map. │ IN      │ A      │    22 │ 151.101.189.67  │
│ fastly.net.     │         │        │       │                 │
╘═════════════════╧═════════╧════════╧═══════╧═════════════════╛

or with truncation enabled:

$ jc dig www.cnn.com | jq '.[].answer' | jtbl -t 
name                  class    type      ttl  data
--------------------  -------  ------  -----  --------------------
www.cnn.com.          IN       CNAME     219  turner-tls.map.fastl
turner-tls.map.fastl  IN       A          10  151.101.189.67

Here’s an example using it to print the result of an XML API query response, converted to JSON with jc, and filtered with jq:

$ curl -X GET --basic -u "testuser:testpassword" https://reststop.randomhouse.com/resources/works/19306 | jc --xml | jq '.work' | jtbl
╒═════════════╤══════════╤══════════╤════════════╤══════════════╤════════════╤═════════════╤══════════════╤══════════════╤════════════╕
│ authorweb   │ titles   │   workid │ @uri       │ onsaledate   │ series     │ titleAuth   │ titleSubti   │ titleshort   │ titleweb   │
│             │          │          │            │              │            │             │ tleAuth      │              │            │
╞═════════════╪══════════╪══════════╪════════════╪══════════════╪════════════╪═════════════╪══════════════╪══════════════╪════════════╡
│ BROWN, DAN  │          │    19306 │ https://re │ 2003-09-02   │ Robert Lan │ Angels & D  │ Angels & D   │ ANGELS & D   │ Angels & D │
│             │          │          │ ststop.ran │ T00:00:00-   │ gdon       │ emons : Da  │ emons :  :   │ EMON(LPTP)   │ emons      │
│             │          │          │ domhouse.c │ 04:00        │            │ n Brown     │  Dan Brown   │ (REI)(MTI)   │            │
│             │          │          │ om/resourc │              │            │             │              │              │            │
│             │          │          │ es/works/1 │              │            │             │              │              │            │
│             │          │          │ 9306       │              │            │             │              │              │            │
╘═════════════╧══════════╧══════════╧════════════╧══════════════╧════════════╧═════════════╧══════════════╧══════════════╧════════════╛

Again, with truncation enabled:

$ curl -X GET --basic -u "testuser:testpassword" https://reststop.randomhouse.com/resources/works/19306 | jc --xml | jq '.work' | jtbl -t
authorweb    titles      workid  @uri        onsaledate    series      titleAuth    titleSubti    titleshort    titleweb
-----------  --------  --------  ----------  ------------  ----------  -----------  ------------  ------------  ----------
BROWN, DAN                19306  https://re  2003-09-02    ROBERT LAN  Angels & D   Angels & D    ANGELS & D    Angels & D

I found that having the ability to quickly see the JSON data in a tabular, horizontal format can sometimes help me visualize ‘where I am’ in the data more easily than looking at long vertical lists of JSON.

I hope you enjoy it!