XPath to read array elements from JSON string

Question

I am having JSON output string in the following structure.

{
    "Results": [
        { "Result": 5756 },
        { "Result": 5234 },
        { "Result": 5432 }
    ]
}

From this, I want to access each element (one by one – 5756, 5234, 5432) of “Results” array.

In order to read/extract the element, I am using “XPath”. I have tried many XPaths, however got no luck thus far; following are few of them.

1. //*[1].Result -- Invalid xPath
2. //*[1].Result[0] -- Invalid xPath
3. //*[1]/Result[0] -- NULL
4. //*[1]/Result -- NULL

And when used //*[1] It gives entire JSON string as following.

[
    { "Result": 5756 },
    { "Result": 5234 },
    { "Result": 5432 }
]

Could you please help me out to resolve the problem I am facing? Or In case, structure of JSON is required to be changed, suggest me new structure along with XPath to access array element, example would be appreciated.

Many thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Here's an example of how you can do it in Ruby, using jsonpath gem (http://rubygems.org/gems/jsonpath):

requre 'json'
require 'jsonpath'

# I initialize the data inline here, but you can read it from file
data = <<-EOS
{
  "Results": [
    { "Result": 5756 },
    { "Result": 5234 },
    { "Result": 5432 }
   ]
}
EOS

json_data = JSON.parse(data)

# First value:
JsonPath.new("$.Results[0].Result").on(json_data) # => 5756

# Second value:
JsonPath.new("$.Results[1].Result").on(json_data) # => 5234

# Third value:
JsonPath.new("$.Results[2].Result").on(json_data) # => 5432