How to check if element exists in array with jq

Question

I have an array and I need to check if elements exists in that array or to get that element from the array using jq, fruit.json:

{
    \"fr         


        

Answer 1

If you're open to using something other than jq, then I can highly recommend Xidel.
With it you can combine JSONiq and XPath/XQuery to process JSON!

To have it simply return a boolean:

$ xidel -s fruit.json -e '$json/contains((fruit)(),"apple")'
true

To have it return the element if the array fruit contains "apple":

$ xidel -s fruit.json -e '$json/(fruit)()[contains(.,"apple")]'
apple

Above is "XPath notation". "Dot notation" (like jq):

$ xidel -s fruit.json -e '($json).fruit()[contains(.,"apple")]'
apple