JSON Path Finder helps developers quickly locate any node in JSON data. Paste JSON into the input box, and the tool automatically parses it into an interactive tree structure. Click any node to get its complete path, supporting dot notation, bracket notation, and jq format for direct use in code or command-line tools.
JSONPath Notation Explained
JSONPath is an expression language for locating specific data in JSON documents. This tool supports three mainstream formats: dot notation ($.user.name) is intuitive and readable for simple paths; bracket notation ($['user']['name']) handles special characters and numeric keys; jq format (.user.name) is compatible with the jq command-line tool for shell scripts.
Advantages of Tree Visualization
Compared to reading raw JSON text, tree visualization makes complex nested structures clear at a glance. Features include expandable/collapsible nodes, color-coded data types (objects blue, arrays purple, strings green, numbers orange), and quick browsing of deeply nested data. Click any node to get its path without manual concatenation.
Development & Debugging Applications
- Analyze API response structures to quickly find field paths
- Debug complex config files to locate specific settings
- Write data processing scripts with jq or JSONPath expressions
- Determine object access paths during development
FAQ
Q: What's the difference between JSONPath and XPath?
A: JSONPath is for JSON data, XPath is for XML data. JSONPath syntax is more concise, using $ for root and dot/bracket for property access. Both support array indices and wildcards, but JSONPath doesn't have XPath's axis concept.
Q: How to handle keys with special characters?
A: When a key contains dots, spaces, or other special characters, use bracket notation. For example, for a key 'user.name', write $['user.name'] instead of $.user.name. This tool automatically detects and generates the correct format.
Q: How large JSON files are supported?
A: As a browser-side tool, it can handle JSON data up to several MB. For very large JSON files, consider pre-processing with jq or other command-line tools. The tree view expands only the first two levels by default to avoid performance issues with large datasets.