How to format a bash array as a JSON array

Question

I have a bash array

X=(\"hello world\" \"goodnight moon\")

That I want to turn into a json array

[\"hello world\", \"goodni         


        

Answer 1

If you're OK with a few extra backslashes, bash's printf "%q" is useful:

X=("hello world" "goodnight moon" 'say "boo"' 'foo\bar')
json="[$(printf '"%q",' "${X[@]}")"
json="${json%,}]"
echo "$json"

["hello\ world","goodnight\ moon","say\ \"boo\"","foo\\bar"]

---

Regarding the OK-ness of the backslashes: node.js doesn't have a problem with them:

$ node
> x = ["hello\ world","goodnight\ moon","say\ \"boo\"","foo\\bar"]
[ 'hello world',
  'goodnight moon',
  'say "boo"',
  'foo\\bar' ]