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rfc:rfc9535



Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) S. Gössner, Ed. Request for Comments: 9535 Fachhochschule Dortmund Category: Standards Track G. Normington, Ed. ISSN: 2070-1721

                                                       C. Bormann, Ed.
                                                Universität Bremen TZI
                                                         February 2024
                JSONPath: Query Expressions for JSON

Abstract

 JSONPath defines a string syntax for selecting and extracting JSON
 (RFC 8259) values from within a given JSON value.

Status of This Memo

 This is an Internet Standards Track document.
 This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
 (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
 received public review and has been approved for publication by the
 Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
 Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 7841.
 Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
 and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
 https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9535.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (c) 2024 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
 document authors.  All rights reserved.
 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
 (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
 publication of this document.  Please review these documents
 carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
 to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
 include Revised BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the
 Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described
 in the Revised BSD License.

Table of Contents

 1.  Introduction
   1.1.  Terminology
     1.1.1.  JSON Values as Trees of Nodes
   1.2.  History
   1.3.  JSON Values
   1.4.  Overview of JSONPath Expressions
     1.4.1.  Identifiers
     1.4.2.  Segments
     1.4.3.  Selectors
     1.4.4.  Summary
   1.5.  JSONPath Examples
 2.  JSONPath Syntax and Semantics
   2.1.  Overview
     2.1.1.  Syntax
     2.1.2.  Semantics
     2.1.3.  Example
   2.2.  Root Identifier
     2.2.1.  Syntax
     2.2.2.  Semantics
     2.2.3.  Examples
   2.3.  Selectors
     2.3.1.  Name Selector
       2.3.1.1.  Syntax
       2.3.1.2.  Semantics
       2.3.1.3.  Examples
     2.3.2.  Wildcard Selector
       2.3.2.1.  Syntax
       2.3.2.2.  Semantics
       2.3.2.3.  Examples
     2.3.3.  Index Selector
       2.3.3.1.  Syntax
       2.3.3.2.  Semantics
       2.3.3.3.  Examples
     2.3.4.  Array Slice Selector
       2.3.4.1.  Syntax
       2.3.4.2.  Semantics
       2.3.4.3.  Examples
     2.3.5.  Filter Selector
       2.3.5.1.  Syntax
       2.3.5.2.  Semantics
       2.3.5.3.  Examples
   2.4.  Function Extensions
     2.4.1.  Type System for Function Expressions
     2.4.2.  Type Conversion
     2.4.3.  Well-Typedness of Function Expressions
     2.4.4.  length() Function Extension
     2.4.5.  count() Function Extension
     2.4.6.  match() Function Extension
     2.4.7.  search() Function Extension
     2.4.8.  value() Function Extension
     2.4.9.  Examples
   2.5.  Segments
     2.5.1.  Child Segment
       2.5.1.1.  Syntax
       2.5.1.2.  Semantics
       2.5.1.3.  Examples
     2.5.2.  Descendant Segment
       2.5.2.1.  Syntax
       2.5.2.2.  Semantics
       2.5.2.3.  Examples
   2.6.  Semantics of null
     2.6.1.  Examples
   2.7.  Normalized Paths
     2.7.1.  Examples
 3.  IANA Considerations
   3.1.  Registration of Media Type application/jsonpath
   3.2.  Function Extensions Subregistry
 4.  Security Considerations
   4.1.  Attack Vectors on JSONPath Implementations
   4.2.  Attack Vectors on How JSONPath Queries Are Formed
   4.3.  Attacks on Security Mechanisms That Employ JSONPath
 5.  References
   5.1.  Normative References
   5.2.  Informative References
 Appendix A.  Collected ABNF Grammars
 Appendix B.  Inspired by XPath
   B.1.  JSONPath and XPath
 Appendix C.  JSON Pointer
 Acknowledgements
 Contributors
 Authors' Addresses

1. Introduction

 JSON [RFC8259] is a popular representation format for structured data
 values.  JSONPath defines a string syntax for selecting and
 extracting JSON values from within a given JSON value.
 In relation to JSON Pointer [RFC6901], JSONPath is not intended as a
 replacement but as a more powerful companion.  See Appendix C.

1.1. Terminology

 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
 "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
 BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all
 capitals, as shown here.
 The grammatical rules in this document are to be interpreted as ABNF,
 as described in [RFC5234].  ABNF terminal values in this document
 define Unicode scalar values rather than their UTF-8 encoding.  For
 example, the Unicode PLACE OF INTEREST SIGN (U+2318) would be defined
 in ABNF as %x2318.
 Functions are referred to using the function name followed by a pair
 of parentheses, as in fname().
 The terminology of [RFC8259] applies except where clarified below.
 The terms "primitive" and "structured" are used to group different
 kinds of values as in Section 1 of [RFC8259].  JSON objects and
 arrays are structured; all other values are primitive.  Definitions
 for "object", "array", "number", and "string" remain unchanged.
 Importantly, "object" and "array" in particular do not take on a
 generic meaning, such as they would in a general programming context.
 The terminology of [RFC9485] applies.
 Additional terms used in this document are defined below.
 Value:  As per [RFC8259], a data item conforming to the generic data
    model of JSON, i.e., primitive data (numbers, text strings, and
    the special values null, true, and false), or structured data
    (JSON objects and arrays).  [RFC8259] focuses on the textual
    representation of JSON values and does not fully define the value
    abstraction assumed here.
 Member:  A name/value pair in an object.  (A member is not itself a
    value.)
 Name:  The name (a string) in a name/value pair constituting a
    member.  This is also used in [RFC8259], but that specification
    does not formally define it.  It is included here for
    completeness.
 Element:  A value in a JSON array.
 Index:  An integer that identifies a specific element in an array.
 Query:  Short name for a JSONPath expression.
 Query Argument:  Short name for the value a JSONPath expression is
    applied to.
 Location:  The position of a value within the query argument.  This
    can be thought of as a sequence of names and indexes navigating to
    the value through the objects and arrays in the query argument,
    with the empty sequence indicating the query argument itself.  A
    location can be represented as a Normalized Path (defined below).
 Node:  The pair of a value along with its location within the query
    argument.
 Root Node:  The unique node whose value is the entire query argument.
 Root Node Identifier:  The expression $, which refers to the root
    node of the query argument.
 Current Node Identifier:  The expression @, which refers to the
    current node in the context of the evaluation of a filter
    expression (described later).
 Children (of a node):  If the node is an array, the nodes of its
    elements; if the node is an object, the nodes of its member
    values.  If the node is neither an array nor an object, it has no
    children.
 Descendants (of a node):  The children of the node, together with the
    children of its children, and so forth recursively.  More
    formally, the "descendants" relation between nodes is the
    transitive closure of the "children" relation.
 Depth (of a descendant node within a value):  The number of ancestors
    of the node within the value.  The root node of the value has
    depth zero, the children of the root node have depth one, their
    children have depth two, and so forth.
 Nodelist:  A list of nodes.  While a nodelist can be represented in
    JSON, e.g., as an array, this document does not require or assume
    any particular representation.
 Parameter:  Formal parameter (of a function) that can take a function
    argument (an actual parameter) in a function expression.
 Normalized Path:  A form of JSONPath expression that identifies a
    node in a value by providing a query that results in exactly that
    node.  Each node in a query argument is identified by exactly one
    Normalized Path (we say that the Normalized Path is "unique" for
    that node), and to be a Normalized Path for a specific query
    argument, the Normalized Path needs to identify exactly one node.
    This is similar to, but syntactically different from, a JSON
    Pointer [RFC6901].  Note: This definition is based on the
    syntactical definition in Section 2.7; JSONPath expressions that
    identify a node in a value but do not conform to that syntax are
    not Normalized Paths.
 Unicode Scalar Value:  Any Unicode [UNICODE] code point except high-
    surrogate and low-surrogate code points (in other words, integers
    in the inclusive base 16 ranges, either 0 to D7FF or E000 to
    10FFFF).  JSONPath queries are sequences of Unicode scalar values.
 Segment:  One of the constructs that selects children ([<selectors>])
    or descendants (..[<selectors>]) of an input value.
 Selector:  A single item within a segment that takes the input value
    and produces a nodelist consisting of child nodes of the input
    value.
 Singular Query:  A JSONPath expression built from segments that have
    been syntactically restricted in a certain way (Section 2.3.5.1)
    so that, regardless of the input value, the expression produces a
    nodelist containing at most one node.  Note: JSONPath expressions
    that always produce a singular nodelist but do not conform to the
    syntax in Section 2.3.5.1 are not singular queries.

1.1.1. JSON Values as Trees of Nodes

 This document models the query argument as a tree of JSON values,
 each with its own node.  A node is either the root node or one of its
 descendants.
 This document models the result of applying a query to the query
 argument as a nodelist (a list of nodes).
 Nodes are the selectable parts of the query argument.  The only parts
 of an object that can be selected by a query are the member values.
 Member names and members (name/value pairs) cannot be selected.
 Thus, member values have nodes, but members and member names do not.
 Similarly, member values are children of an object, but members and
 member names are not.

1.2. History

 This document is based on Stefan Gössner's popular JSONPath proposal
 (dated 2007-02-21) [JSONPath-orig], builds on the experience from the
 widespread deployment of its implementations, and provides a
 normative specification for it.
 Appendix B describes how JSONPath was inspired by XML's XPath
 [XPath].
 JSONPath was intended as a lightweight companion to JSON
 implementations in programming languages such as PHP and JavaScript,
 so instead of defining its own expression language, like XPath did,
 JSONPath delegated parts of a query to the underlying runtime, e.g.,
 JavaScript's eval() function.  As JSONPath was implemented in more
 environments, JSONPath expressions became decreasingly portable.  For
 example, regular expression processing was often delegated to a
 convenient regular expression engine.
 This document aims to remove such implementation-specific
 dependencies and serve as a common JSONPath specification that can be
 used across programming languages and environments.  This means that
 backwards compatibility is not always achieved; a design principle of
 this document is to go with a "consensus" between implementations
 even if it is rough, as long as that does not jeopardize the
 objective of obtaining a usable, stable JSON query language.
 The term _JSONPath_ was chosen because of the XPath inspiration and
 also because the outcome of a query consists of _paths_ identifying
 nodes in the JSON query argument.

1.3. JSON Values

 The JSON value a JSONPath query is applied to is, by definition, a
 valid JSON value.  A JSON value is often constructed by parsing a
 JSON text.
 The parsing of a JSON text into a JSON value and what happens if a
 JSON text does not represent valid JSON are not defined by this
 document.  Sections 4 and 8 of [RFC8259] identify specific situations
 that may conform to the grammar for JSON texts but are not
 interoperable uses of JSON, as they may cause unpredictable behavior.
 This document does not attempt to define predictable behavior for
 JSONPath queries in these situations.
 Specifically, the "Semantics" subsections of Sections 2.3.1, 2.3.2,
 2.3.5, and 2.5.2 describe behavior that becomes unpredictable when
 the JSON value for one of the objects under consideration was
 constructed out of JSON text that exhibits multiple members for a
 single object that share the same member name ("duplicate names"; see
 Section 4 of [RFC8259]).  Also, when selecting a child by name
 (Section 2.3.1) and comparing strings (Section 2.3.5.2.2), it is
 assumed these strings are sequences of Unicode scalar values; the
 behavior becomes unpredictable if they are not (Section 8.2 of
 [RFC8259]).

1.4. Overview of JSONPath Expressions

 A JSONPath expression is applied to a JSON value, known as the query
 argument.  The output is a nodelist.
 A JSONPath expression consists of an identifier followed by a series
 of zero or more segments, each of which contains one or more
 selectors.

1.4.1. Identifiers

 The root node identifier $ refers to the root node of the query
 argument, i.e., to the argument as a whole.
 The current node identifier @ refers to the current node in the
 context of the evaluation of a filter expression (Section 2.3.5).

1.4.2. Segments

 Segments select children ([<selectors>]) or descendants
 (..[<selectors>]) of an input value.
 Segments can use _bracket notation_, for example:
 $['store']['book'][0]['title']
 or the more compact _dot notation_, for example:
 $.store.book[0].title
 Bracket notation contains one or more (comma-separated) selectors of
 any kind.  Selectors are detailed in the next section.
 A JSONPath expression may use a combination of bracket and dot
 notations.
 This document treats the bracket notations as canonical and defines
 the shorthand dot notation in terms of bracket notation.  Examples
 and descriptions use shorthand where convenient.

1.4.3. Selectors

 A name selector, e.g., 'name', selects a named child of an object.
 An index selector, e.g., 3, selects an indexed child of an array.
 In the expression [*], a wildcard * (Section 2.3.2) selects all
 children of a node, and in the expression ..[*], it selects all
 descendants of a node.
 An array slice start:end:step (Section 2.3.4) selects a series of
 elements from an array, giving a start position, an end position, and
 an optional step value that moves the position from the start to the
 end.
 A filter expression ?<logical-expr> selects certain children of an
 object or array, as in:
 $.store.book[?@.price < 10].title

1.4.4. Summary

 Table 1 provides a brief overview of JSONPath syntax.
 +==================+================================================+
 | Syntax Element   | Description                                    |
 +==================+================================================+
 | $                | root node identifier (Section 2.2)             |
 +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
 | @                | current node identifier (Section 2.3.5)        |
 |                  | (valid only within filter selectors)           |
 +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
 | [<selectors>]    | child segment (Section 2.5.1): selects         |
 |                  | zero or more children of a node                |
 +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
 | .name            | shorthand for ['name']                         |
 +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
 | .*               | shorthand for [*]                              |
 +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
 | ..[<selectors>]  | descendant segment (Section 2.5.2):            |
 |                  | selects zero or more descendants of a node     |
 +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
 | ..name           | shorthand for ..['name']                       |
 +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
 | ..*              | shorthand for ..[*]                            |
 +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
 | 'name'           | name selector (Section 2.3.1): selects a       |
 |                  | named child of an object                       |
 +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
 | *                | wildcard selector (Section 2.3.2): selects     |
 |                  | all children of a node                         |
 +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
 | 3                | index selector (Section 2.3.3): selects an     |
 |                  | indexed child of an array (from 0)             |
 +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
 | 0:100:5          | array slice selector (Section 2.3.4):          |
 |                  | start:end:step for arrays                      |
 +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
 | ?<logical-expr>  | filter selector (Section 2.3.5): selects       |
 |                  | particular children using a logical            |
 |                  | expression                                     |
 +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
 | length(@.foo)    | function extension (Section 2.4): invokes      |
 |                  | a function in a filter expression              |
 +------------------+------------------------------------------------+
                  Table 1: Overview of JSONPath Syntax

1.5. JSONPath Examples

 This section is informative.  It provides examples of JSONPath
 expressions.
 The examples are based on the simple JSON value shown in Figure 1,
 representing a bookstore (which also has a bicycle).
 { "store": {
     "book": [
       { "category": "reference",
         "author": "Nigel Rees",
         "title": "Sayings of the Century",
         "price": 8.95
       },
       { "category": "fiction",
         "author": "Evelyn Waugh",
         "title": "Sword of Honour",
         "price": 12.99
       },
       { "category": "fiction",
         "author": "Herman Melville",
         "title": "Moby Dick",
         "isbn": "0-553-21311-3",
         "price": 8.99
       },
       { "category": "fiction",
         "author": "J. R. R. Tolkien",
         "title": "The Lord of the Rings",
         "isbn": "0-395-19395-8",
         "price": 22.99
       }
     ],
     "bicycle": {
       "color": "red",
       "price": 399
     }
   }
 }
                      Figure 1: Example JSON Value
 Table 2 shows some JSONPath queries that might be applied to this
 example and their intended results.
  +========================+=======================================+
  | JSONPath               | Intended Result                       |
  +========================+=======================================+
  | $.store.book[*].author | the authors of all books in the store |
  +------------------------+---------------------------------------+
  | $..author              | all authors                           |
  +------------------------+---------------------------------------+
  | $.store.*              | all things in the store, which are    |
  |                        | some books and a red bicycle          |
  +------------------------+---------------------------------------+
  | $.store..price         | the prices of everything in the store |
  +------------------------+---------------------------------------+
  | $..book[2]             | the third book                        |
  +------------------------+---------------------------------------+
  | $..book[2].author      | the third book's author               |
  +------------------------+---------------------------------------+
  | $..book[2].publisher   | empty result: the third book does not |
  |                        | have a "publisher" member             |
  +------------------------+---------------------------------------+
  | $..book[-1]            | the last book in order                |
  +------------------------+---------------------------------------+
  | $..book[0,1]           | the first two books                   |
  | $..book[:2]            |                                       |
  +------------------------+---------------------------------------+
  | $..book[?@.isbn]       | all books with an ISBN number         |
  +------------------------+---------------------------------------+
  | $..book[?@.price<10]   | all books cheaper than 10             |
  +------------------------+---------------------------------------+
  | $..*                   | all member values and array elements  |
  |                        | contained in the input value          |
  +------------------------+---------------------------------------+
       Table 2: Example JSONPath Expressions and Their Intended
            Results When Applied to the Example JSON Value

2. JSONPath Syntax and Semantics

2.1. Overview

 A JSONPath _expression_ is a string that, when applied to a JSON
 value (the _query argument_), selects zero or more nodes of the
 argument and outputs these nodes as a nodelist.
 A query MUST be encoded using UTF-8.  The grammar for queries given
 in this document assumes that its UTF-8 form is first decoded into
 Unicode scalar values as described in [RFC3629]; implementation
 approaches that lead to an equivalent result are possible.
 A string to be used as a JSONPath query needs to be _well-formed_ and
 _valid_. A string is a well-formed JSONPath query if it conforms to
 the ABNF syntax in this document.  A well-formed JSONPath query is
 valid if it also fulfills both semantic requirements posed by this
 document, which are as follows:
 1.  Integer numbers in the JSONPath query that are relevant to the
     JSONPath processing (e.g., index values and steps) MUST be within
     the range of exact integer values defined in Internet JSON
     (I-JSON) (see Section 2.2 of [RFC7493]), namely within the
     interval [-(2^53)+1, (2^53)-1].
 2.  Uses of function extensions MUST be _well-typed_, as described in
     Section 2.4.3.
 A JSONPath implementation MUST raise an error for any query that is
 not well-formed and valid.  The well-formedness and the validity of
 JSONPath queries are independent of the JSON value the query is
 applied to.  No further errors relating to the well-formedness and
 the validity of a JSONPath query can be raised during application of
 the query to a value.  This clearly separates well-formedness/
 validity errors in the query from mismatches that may actually stem
 from flaws in the data.
 Mismatches between the structure expected by a valid query and the
 structure found in the data can lead to empty query results, which
 may be unexpected and indicate bugs in either.  JSONPath
 implementations might therefore want to provide diagnostics to the
 application developer that aid in finding the cause of empty results.
 Obviously, an implementation can still fail when executing a JSONPath
 query, e.g., because of resource depletion, but this is not modeled
 in this document.  However, the implementation MUST NOT silently
 malfunction.  Specifically, if a valid JSONPath query is evaluated
 against a structured value whose size is too large to process the
 query correctly (for instance, requiring the processing of numbers
 that fall outside the range of exact values), the implementation MUST
 provide an indication of overflow.
 (Readers familiar with the HTTP error model may be reminded of 400
 type errors when pondering well-formedness and validity, and they may
 recognize resource depletion and related errors as comparable to 500
 type errors.)

2.1.1. Syntax

 Syntactically, a JSONPath query consists of a root identifier ($),
 which stands for a nodelist that contains the root node of the query
 argument, followed by a possibly empty sequence of _segments_.
 jsonpath-query      = root-identifier segments
 segments            = *(S segment)
 B                   = %x20 /    ; Space
                       %x09 /    ; Horizontal tab
                       %x0A /    ; Line feed or New line
                       %x0D      ; Carriage return
 S                   = *B        ; optional blank space
 The syntax and semantics of segments are defined in Section 2.5.

2.1.2. Semantics

 In this document, the semantics of a JSONPath query define the
 required results and do not prescribe the internal workings of an
 implementation.  This document may describe semantics in a procedural
 step-by-step fashion; however, such descriptions are normative only
 in the sense that any implementation MUST produce an identical result
 but not in the sense that implementers are required to use the same
 algorithms.
 The semantics are that a valid query is executed against a value (the
 _query argument_) and produces a nodelist (i.e., a list of zero or
 more nodes of the value).
 The query is a root identifier followed by a sequence of zero or more
 segments, each of which is applied to the result of the previous root
 identifier or segment and provides input to the next segment.  These
 results and inputs take the form of nodelists.
 The nodelist resulting from the root identifier contains a single
 node (the query argument).  The nodelist resulting from the last
 segment is presented as the result of the query.  Depending on the
 specific API, it might be presented as an array of the JSON values at
 the nodes, an array of Normalized Paths referencing the nodes, or
 both -- or some other representation as desired by the
 implementation.  Note: An empty nodelist is a valid query result.
 A segment operates on each of the nodes in its input nodelist in
 turn, and the resultant nodelists are concatenated in the order of
 the input nodelist they were derived from to produce the result of
 the segment.  A node may be selected more than once and appears that
 number of times in the nodelist.  Duplicate nodes are not removed.
 A syntactically valid segment MUST NOT produce errors when executing
 the query.  This means that some operations that might be considered
 erroneous, such as using an index lying outside the range of an
 array, simply result in fewer nodes being selected.  (Additional
 discussion of this property can be found in the introduction of
 Section 2.1.)
 As a consequence of this approach, if any of the segments produces an
 empty nodelist, then the whole query produces an empty nodelist.
 If the semantics of a query give an implementation a choice of
 producing multiple possible orderings, a particular implementation
 may produce distinct orderings in successive runs of the query.

2.1.3. Example

 Consider this example.  With the query argument
 {"a":[{"b":0},{"b":1},{"c":2}]}, the query $.a[*].b selects the
 following list of nodes (denoted here by their values): 0, 1.
 The query consists of $ followed by three segments: .a, [*], and .b.
 First, $ produces a nodelist consisting of just the query argument.
 Next, .a selects from any object input node and selects the node of
 any member value of the input node corresponding to the member name
 "a".  The result is again a list containing a single node:
 [{"b":0},{"b":1},{"c":2}].
 Next, [*] selects all the elements from the input array node.  The
 result is a list of three nodes: {"b":0}, {"b":1}, and {"c":2}.
 Finally, .b selects from any object input node with a member name b
 and selects the node of the member value of the input node
 corresponding to that name.  The result is a list containing 0, 1.
 This is the concatenation of three lists: two of length one
 containing 0, 1, respectively, and one of length zero.

2.2. Root Identifier

2.2.1. Syntax

 Every JSONPath query (except those inside filter expressions; see
 Section 2.3.5) MUST begin with the root identifier $.
 root-identifier     = "$"

2.2.2. Semantics

 The root identifier $ represents the root node of the query argument
 and produces a nodelist consisting of that root node.

2.2.3. Examples

    |  Note: In this example and the following examples in Sections
    |  2.2 and 2.3, except for Table 11, we will present a JSON text
    |  to show the JSON value used as the query argument to the
    |  queries in the examples and then a table with the following
    |  columns:
    |  
    |     *  Query: an example query to be applied to the query
    |        argument
    |  
    |     *  Result: the query result as a list of JSON values that
    |        were located in the query argument
    |  
    |     *  Result Path: the query result as a list of (normalized)
    |        paths into the query argument, giving locations of the
    |        JSON values in the previous column
    |  
    |     *  Comment: descriptive information
 JSON:
 {"k": "v"}
 Queries:
           +=======+============+=============+===========+
           | Query | Result     | Result Path | Comment   |
           +=======+============+=============+===========+
           |   $   | {"k": "v"} |      $      | Root node |
           +-------+------------+-------------+-----------+
                   Table 3: Root Identifier Example

2.3. Selectors

 Selectors appear only inside child segments (Section 2.5.1) and
 descendant segments (Section 2.5.2).
 A selector produces a nodelist consisting of zero or more children of
 the input value.
 There are various kinds of selectors that produce children of
 objects, children of arrays, or children of either objects or arrays.
 selector            = name-selector /
                       wildcard-selector /
                       slice-selector /
                       index-selector /
                       filter-selector
 The syntax and semantics of each kind of selector are defined below.

2.3.1. Name Selector

2.3.1.1. Syntax

 A name selector '<name>' selects at most one object member value.
 In contrast to JSON, the JSONPath syntax allows strings to be
 enclosed in _single_ or _double_ quotes.
 name-selector       = string-literal
 string-literal      = %x22 *double-quoted %x22 /     ; "string"
                       %x27 *single-quoted %x27       ; 'string'
 double-quoted       = unescaped /
                       %x27      /                    ; '
                       ESC %x22  /                    ; \"
                       ESC escapable
 single-quoted       = unescaped /
                       %x22      /                    ; "
                       ESC %x27  /                    ; \'
                       ESC escapable
 ESC                 = %x5C                           ; \ backslash
 unescaped           = %x20-21 /                      ; see RFC 8259
                          ; omit 0x22 "
                       %x23-26 /
                          ; omit 0x27 '
                       %x28-5B /
                          ; omit 0x5C \
                       %x5D-D7FF /
                          ; skip surrogate code points
                       %xE000-10FFFF
 escapable           = %x62 / ; b BS backspace U+0008
                       %x66 / ; f FF form feed U+000C
                       %x6E / ; n LF line feed U+000A
                       %x72 / ; r CR carriage return U+000D
                       %x74 / ; t HT horizontal tab U+0009
                       "/"  / ; / slash (solidus) U+002F
                       "\"  / ; \ backslash (reverse solidus) U+005C
                       (%x75 hexchar) ;  uXXXX U+XXXX
 hexchar             = non-surrogate /
                       (high-surrogate "\" %x75 low-surrogate)
 non-surrogate       = ((DIGIT / "A"/"B"/"C" / "E"/"F") 3HEXDIG) /
                       ("D" %x30-37 2HEXDIG )
 high-surrogate      = "D" ("8"/"9"/"A"/"B") 2HEXDIG
 low-surrogate       = "D" ("C"/"D"/"E"/"F") 2HEXDIG
 HEXDIG              = DIGIT / "A" / "B" / "C" / "D" / "E" / "F"
 Notes:
  • Double-quoted strings follow the JSON string syntax (Section 7 of

[RFC8259]); single-quoted strings follow an analogous pattern. No

    attempt was made to improve on this syntax, so if it is desired to
    escape characters with scalar values above 0xFFFF, such as U+1F041
    ("🁁", DOMINO TILE HORIZONTAL-02-02), they need to be represented
    by a pair of surrogate escapes ("\uD83C\uDC41" in this case).
  • Alphabetic characters in quoted strings are case-insensitive in

ABNF, so each of the hexadecimal digits within \u escapes (as

    specified in rules referenced by hexchar) can be either lowercase
    or uppercase, while the u in \u needs to be lowercase (indicated
    as %x75).

2.3.1.2. Semantics

 A name-selector string MUST be converted to a member name M by
 removing the surrounding quotes and replacing each escape sequence
 with its equivalent Unicode character, as shown in Table 4:
 +=================+===================+=============================+
 | Escape Sequence | Unicode Character | Description                 |
 +=================+===================+=============================+
 |        \b       |       U+0008      | BS backspace                |
 +-----------------+-------------------+-----------------------------+
 |        \t       |       U+0009      | HT horizontal tab           |
 +-----------------+-------------------+-----------------------------+
 |        \n       |       U+000A      | LF line feed                |
 +-----------------+-------------------+-----------------------------+
 |        \f       |       U+000C      | FF form feed                |
 +-----------------+-------------------+-----------------------------+
 |        \r       |       U+000D      | CR carriage return          |
 +-----------------+-------------------+-----------------------------+
 |        \"       |       U+0022      | quotation mark              |
 +-----------------+-------------------+-----------------------------+
 |        \'       |       U+0027      | apostrophe                  |
 +-----------------+-------------------+-----------------------------+
 |        \/       |       U+002F      | slash (solidus)             |
 +-----------------+-------------------+-----------------------------+
 |        \\       |       U+005C      | backslash (reverse          |
 |                 |                   | solidus)                    |
 +-----------------+-------------------+-----------------------------+
 |      \uXXXX     |        see        | hexadecimal escape          |
 |                 |  Section 2.3.1.1  |                             |
 +-----------------+-------------------+-----------------------------+
                 Table 4: Escape Sequence Replacements
 Applying the name-selector to an object node selects a member value
 whose name equals the member name M or selects nothing if there is no
 such member value.  Nothing is selected from a value that is not an
 object.
 Note: Processing the name selector requires comparing the member name
 string M with member name strings in the JSON to which the selector
 is being applied.  Two strings MUST be considered equal if and only
 if they are identical sequences of Unicode scalar values.  In other
 words, normalization operations MUST NOT be applied to either the
 member name string M from the JSONPath or the member name strings in
 the JSON prior to comparison.

2.3.1.3. Examples

 JSON:
 {
   "o": {"j j": {"k.k": 3}},
   "'": {"@": 2}
 }
 Queries:
 The examples in Table 5 show the name selector in use by child
 segments.
  +====================+=======+=======================+============+
  |       Query        |Result |      Result Paths     | Comment    |
  +====================+=======+=======================+============+
  |     $.o['j j']     |{"k.k":|     $['o']['j j']     | Named      |
  |                    |3}     |                       | value in   |
  |                    |       |                       | a nested   |
  |                    |       |                       | object     |
  +--------------------+-------+-----------------------+------------+
  | $.o['j j']['k.k']  |3      |  $['o']['j j']['k.k'] | Nesting    |
  |                    |       |                       | further    |
  |                    |       |                       | down       |
  +--------------------+-------+-----------------------+------------+
  | $.o["j j"]["k.k"]  |3      |  $['o']['j j']['k.k'] | Different  |
  |                    |       |                       | delimiter  |
  |                    |       |                       | in the     |
  |                    |       |                       | query,     |
  |                    |       |                       | unchanged  |
  |                    |       |                       | Normalized |
  |                    |       |                       | Path       |
  +--------------------+-------+-----------------------+------------+
  |    $["'"]["@"]     |2      |      $['\'']['@']     | Unusual    |
  |                    |       |                       | member     |
  |                    |       |                       | names      |
  +--------------------+-------+-----------------------+------------+
                    Table 5: Name Selector Examples

2.3.2. Wildcard Selector

2.3.2.1. Syntax

 The wildcard selector consists of an asterisk.
 wildcard-selector   = "*"

2.3.2.2. Semantics

 A wildcard selector selects the nodes of all children of an object or
 array.  The order in which the children of an object appear in the
 resultant nodelist is not stipulated, since JSON objects are
 unordered.  Children of an array appear in array order in the
 resultant nodelist.
 Note that the children of an object are its member values, not its
 member names.
 The wildcard selector selects nothing from a primitive JSON value
 (that is, a number, a string, true, false, or null).

2.3.2.3. Examples

 JSON:
 {
   "o": {"j": 1, "k": 2},
   "a": [5, 3]
 }
 Queries:
 The examples in Table 6 show the wildcard selector in use by a child
 segment.
        +========+==========+=============+===================+
        | Query  | Result   |    Result   | Comment           |
        |        |          |    Paths    |                   |
        +========+==========+=============+===================+
        |  $[*]  | {"j": 1, |    $['o']   | Object values     |
        |        | "k": 2}  |    $['a']   |                   |
        |        | [5, 3]   |             |                   |
        +--------+----------+-------------+-------------------+
        | $.o[*] | 1        | $['o']['j'] | Object values     |
        |        | 2        | $['o']['k'] |                   |
        +--------+----------+-------------+-------------------+
        | $.o[*] | 2        | $['o']['k'] | Alternative       |
        |        | 1        | $['o']['j'] | result            |
        +--------+----------+-------------+-------------------+
        | $.o[*, | 1        | $['o']['j'] | Non-deterministic |
        |   *]   | 2        | $['o']['k'] | ordering          |
        |        | 2        | $['o']['k'] |                   |
        |        | 1        | $['o']['j'] |                   |
        +--------+----------+-------------+-------------------+
        | $.a[*] | 5        |  $['a'][0]  | Array members     |
        |        | 3        |  $['a'][1]  |                   |
        +--------+----------+-------------+-------------------+
                  Table 6: Wildcard Selector Examples
 The example above with the query $.o[*, *] shows that the wildcard
 selector may produce nodelists in distinct orders each time it
 appears in the child segment when it is applied to an object node
 with two or more members (but not when it is applied to object nodes
 with fewer than two members or to array nodes).

2.3.3. Index Selector

2.3.3.1. Syntax

 An index selector <index> matches at most one array element value.
 index-selector      = int                        ; decimal integer
 int                 = "0" /
                       (["-"] DIGIT1 *DIGIT)      ; - optional
 DIGIT1              = %x31-39                    ; 1-9 non-zero digit
 Applying the numerical index-selector selects the corresponding
 element.  JSONPath allows it to be negative (see Section 2.3.3.2).
 To be valid, the index selector value MUST be in the I-JSON range of
 exact values (see Section 2.1).
 Notes:
  • An index-selector is an integer (in base 10, as in JSON numbers).
  • As in JSON numbers, the syntax does not allow octal-like integers

with leading zeros, such as 01 or -01.

2.3.3.2. Semantics

 A non-negative index-selector applied to an array selects an array
 element using a zero-based index.  For example, the selector 0
 selects the first, and the selector 4 selects the fifth element of a
 sufficiently long array.  Nothing is selected, and it is not an
 error, if the index lies outside the range of the array.  Nothing is
 selected from a value that is not an array.
 A negative index-selector counts from the array end backwards,
 obtaining an equivalent non-negative index-selector by adding the
 length of the array to the negative index.  For example, the selector
 -1 selects the last, and the selector -2 selects the penultimate
 element of an array with at least two elements.  As with non-negative
 indexes, it is not an error if such an element does not exist; this
 simply means that no element is selected.

2.3.3.3. Examples

 JSON:
 ["a","b"]
 Queries:
 The examples in Table 7 show the index selector in use by a child
 segment.
  +=======+========+==============+================================+
  | Query | Result | Result Paths | Comment                        |
  +=======+========+==============+================================+
  |  $[1] | "b"    |     $[1]     | Element of array               |
  +-------+--------+--------------+--------------------------------+
  | $[-2] | "a"    |     $[0]     | Element of array, from the end |
  +-------+--------+--------------+--------------------------------+
                   Table 7: Index Selector Examples

2.3.4. Array Slice Selector

2.3.4.1. Syntax

 The array slice selector has the form <start>:<end>:<step>.  It
 matches elements from arrays starting at index <start> and ending at
 (but not including) <end>, while incrementing by step with a default
 of 1.
 slice-selector      = [start S] ":" S [end S] [":" [S step ]]
 start               = int       ; included in selection
 end                 = int       ; not included in selection
 step                = int       ; default: 1
 The slice selector consists of three optional decimal integers
 separated by colons.  The second colon can be omitted when the third
 integer is omitted.
 To be valid, the integers provided MUST be in the I-JSON range of
 exact values (see Section 2.1).

2.3.4.2. Semantics

 The slice selector was inspired by the slice operator that was
 proposed for ECMAScript 4 (ES4), which was never released, and that
 of Python.

2.3.4.2.1. Informal Introduction

 This section is informative.
 Array slicing is inspired by the behavior of the
 Array.prototype.slice method of the JavaScript language, as defined
 by the ECMA-262 standard [ECMA-262], with the addition of the step
 parameter, which is inspired by the Python slice expression.
 The array slice expression start:end:step selects elements at indices
 starting at start, incrementing by step, and ending with end (which
 is itself excluded).  So, for example, the expression 1:3 (where step
 defaults to 1) selects elements with indices 1 and 2 (in that order),
 whereas 1:5:2 selects elements with indices 1 and 3.
 When step is negative, elements are selected in reverse order.  Thus,
 for example, 5:1:-2 selects elements with indices 5 and 3 (in that
 order), and ::-1 selects all the elements of an array in reverse
 order.
 When step is 0, no elements are selected.  (This is the one case that
 differs from the behavior of Python, which raises an error in this
 case.)
 The following section specifies the behavior fully, without depending
 on JavaScript or Python behavior.

2.3.4.2.2. Normative Semantics

 A slice expression selects a subset of the elements of the input
 array in the same order as the array or the reverse order, depending
 on the sign of the step parameter.  It selects no nodes from a node
 that is not an array.
 A slice is defined by the two slice parameters, start and end, and an
 iteration delta, step.  Each of these parameters is optional.  In the
 rest of this section, len denotes the length of the input array.
 The default value for step is 1.  The default values for start and
 end depend on the sign of step, as shown in Table 8.
                  +===========+=========+==========+
                  | Condition | start   | end      |
                  +===========+=========+==========+
                  | step >= 0 | 0       | len      |
                  +-----------+---------+----------+
                  | step < 0  | len - 1 | -len - 1 |
                  +-----------+---------+----------+
                     Table 8: Default Array Slice
                         start and end Values
 Slice expression parameters start and end are not directly usable as
 slice bounds and must first be normalized.  Normalization for this
 purpose is defined as:
 FUNCTION Normalize(i, len):
   IF i >= 0 THEN
     RETURN i
   ELSE
     RETURN len + i
   END IF
 The result of the array index expression i applied to an array of
 length len is the result of the array slicing expression Normalize(i,
 len):Normalize(i, len)+1:1.
 Slice expression parameters start and end are used to derive slice
 bounds lower and upper.  The direction of the iteration, defined by
 the sign of step, determines which of the parameters is the lower
 bound and which is the upper bound:
 FUNCTION Bounds(start, end, step, len):
   n_start = Normalize(start, len)
   n_end = Normalize(end, len)
   IF step >= 0 THEN
     lower = MIN(MAX(n_start, 0), len)
     upper = MIN(MAX(n_end, 0), len)
   ELSE
     upper = MIN(MAX(n_start, -1), len-1)
     lower = MIN(MAX(n_end, -1), len-1)
   END IF
   RETURN (lower, upper)
 The slice expression selects elements with indices between the lower
 and upper bounds.  In the following pseudocode, a(i) is the i+1th
 element of the array a (i.e., a(0) is the first element, a(1) the
 second, and so forth).
 IF step > 0 THEN
   i = lower
   WHILE i < upper:
     SELECT a(i)
     i = i + step
   END WHILE
 ELSE if step < 0 THEN
   i = upper
   WHILE lower < i:
     SELECT a(i)
     i = i + step
   END WHILE
 END IF
 When step = 0, no elements are selected, and the result array is
 empty.

2.3.4.3. Examples

 JSON:
 ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f", "g"]
 Queries:
 The examples in Table 9 show the array slice selector in use by a
 child segment.
              +===========+========+========+==========+
              |   Query   | Result | Result | Comment  |
              |           |        | Paths  |          |
              +===========+========+========+==========+
              |   $[1:3]  | "b"    |  $[1]  | Slice    |
              |           | "c"    |  $[2]  | with     |
              |           |        |        | default  |
              |           |        |        | step     |
              +-----------+--------+--------+----------+
              |   $[5:]   | "f"    |  $[5]  | Slice    |
              |           | "g"    |  $[6]  | with no  |
              |           |        |        | end      |
              |           |        |        | index    |
              +-----------+--------+--------+----------+
              |  $[1:5:2] | "b"    |  $[1]  | Slice    |
              |           | "d"    |  $[3]  | with     |
              |           |        |        | step 2   |
              +-----------+--------+--------+----------+
              | $[5:1:-2] | "f"    |  $[5]  | Slice    |
              |           | "d"    |  $[3]  | with     |
              |           |        |        | negative |
              |           |        |        | step     |
              +-----------+--------+--------+----------+
              |  $[::-1]  | "g"    |  $[6]  | Slice in |
              |           | "f"    |  $[5]  | reverse  |
              |           | "e"    |  $[4]  | order    |
              |           | "d"    |  $[3]  |          |
              |           | "c"    |  $[2]  |          |
              |           | "b"    |  $[1]  |          |
              |           | "a"    |  $[0]  |          |
              +-----------+--------+--------+----------+
                Table 9: Array Slice Selector Examples

2.3.5. Filter Selector

 Filter selectors are used to iterate over the elements or members of
 structured values, i.e., JSON arrays and objects.  The structured
 values are identified in the nodelist offered by the child or
 descendant segment using the filter selector.
 For each iteration (element/member), a logical expression (the
 _filter expression_) is evaluated, which decides whether the node of
 the element/member is selected.  (While a logical expression
 evaluates to what mathematically is a Boolean value, this
 specification uses the term _logical_ to maintain a distinction from
 the Boolean values that JSON can represent.)
 During the iteration process, the filter expression receives the node
 of each array element or object member value of the structured value
 being filtered; this element or member value is then known as the
 _current node_.
 The current node can be used as the start of one or more JSONPath
 queries in subexpressions of the filter expression, notated via the
 current-node-identifier @. Each JSONPath query can be used either for
 testing existence of a result of the query, for obtaining a specific
 JSON value resulting from that query that can then be used in a
 comparison, or as a _function argument_.
 Filter selectors may use function extensions, which are covered in
 Section 2.4.  Within the logical expression for a filter selector,
 function expressions can be used to operate on nodelists and values.
 The set of available functions is extensible, with a number of
 functions predefined (see Section 2.4) and the ability to register
 further functions provided by the "Function Extensions" subregistry
 (Section 3.2).  When a function is defined, it is given a unique
 name, and its return value and each of its parameters are given a
 _declared type_. The type system is limited in scope; its purpose is
 to express restrictions that, without functions, are implicit in the
 grammar of filter expressions.  The type system also guides
 conversions (Section 2.4.2) that mimic the way different kinds of
 expressions are handled in the grammar when function expressions are
 not in use.

2.3.5.1. Syntax

 The filter selector has the form ?<logical-expr>.
 filter-selector     = "?" S logical-expr
 As the filter expression is composed of constituents free of side
 effects, the order of evaluation does not need to be (and is not)
 defined.  Similarly, for conjunction (&&) and disjunction (||)
 (defined later), both a short-circuiting and a fully evaluating
 implementation will lead to the same result; both implementation
 strategies are therefore valid.
 The current node is accessible via the current node identifier @.
 This identifier addresses the current node of the filter-selector
 that is directly enclosing the identifier.  Note: Within nested
 filter-selectors, there is no syntax to address the current node of
 any other than the directly enclosing filter-selector (i.e., of
 filter-selectors enclosing the filter-selector that is directly
 enclosing the identifier).
 Logical expressions offer the usual Boolean operators (|| for OR, &&
 for AND, and ! for NOT).  They have the normal semantics of Boolean
 algebra and obey its laws (for example, see [BOOLEAN-LAWS]).
 Parentheses MAY be used within logical-expr for grouping.
 It is not required that logical-expr consist of a parenthesized
 expression (which was required in [JSONPath-orig]), although it can
 be, and the semantics are the same as without the parentheses.
 logical-expr        = logical-or-expr
 logical-or-expr     = logical-and-expr *(S "||" S logical-and-expr)
                         ; disjunction
                         ; binds less tightly than conjunction
 logical-and-expr    = basic-expr *(S "&&" S basic-expr)
                         ; conjunction
                         ; binds more tightly than disjunction
 basic-expr          = paren-expr /
                       comparison-expr /
                       test-expr
 paren-expr          = [logical-not-op S] "(" S logical-expr S ")"
                                         ; parenthesized expression
 logical-not-op      = "!"               ; logical NOT operator
 A test expression either tests the existence of a node designated by
 an embedded query (see Section 2.3.5.2.1) or tests the result of a
 function expression (see Section 2.4).  In the latter case, if the
 function's declared result type is LogicalType (see Section 2.4.1),
 it tests whether the result is LogicalTrue; if the function's
 declared result type is NodesType, it tests whether the result is
 non-empty.  If the function's declared result type is ValueType, its
 use in a test expression is not well-typed (see Section 2.4.3).
 test-expr           = [logical-not-op S]
                       (filter-query / ; existence/non-existence
                        function-expr) ; LogicalType or NodesType
 filter-query        = rel-query / jsonpath-query
 rel-query           = current-node-identifier segments
 current-node-identifier = "@"
 Comparison expressions are available for comparisons between
 primitive values (that is, numbers, strings, true, false, and null).
 These can be obtained via literal values; singular queries, each of
 which selects at most one node, the value of which is then used; or
 function expressions (see Section 2.4) of type ValueType.
 comparison-expr     = comparable S comparison-op S comparable
 literal             = number / string-literal /
                       true / false / null
 comparable          = literal /
                       singular-query / ; singular query value
                       function-expr    ; ValueType
 comparison-op       = "==" / "!=" /
                       "<=" / ">=" /
                       "<"  / ">"
 singular-query      = rel-singular-query / abs-singular-query
 rel-singular-query  = current-node-identifier singular-query-segments
 abs-singular-query  = root-identifier singular-query-segments
 singular-query-segments = *(S (name-segment / index-segment))
 name-segment        = ("[" name-selector "]") /
                       ("." member-name-shorthand)
 index-segment       = "[" index-selector "]"
 Literals can be notated in the way that is usual for JSON (with the
 extension that strings can use single-quote delimiters).
 Note: Alphabetic characters in quoted strings are case-insensitive in
 ABNF, so within a floating point number, the ABNF expression "e" can
 be either the character 'e' or 'E'.
 true, false, and null are lowercase only (case-sensitive).
 number              = (int / "-0") [ frac ] [ exp ] ; decimal number
 frac                = "." 1*DIGIT                  ; decimal fraction
 exp                 = "e" [ "-" / "+" ] 1*DIGIT    ; decimal exponent
 true                = %x74.72.75.65                ; true
 false               = %x66.61.6c.73.65             ; false
 null                = %x6e.75.6c.6c                ; null
 Table 10 lists filter expression operators in order of precedence
 from highest (binds most tightly) to lowest (binds least tightly).
          +============+======================+=============+
          | Precedence |    Operator type     |    Syntax   |
          +============+======================+=============+
          |     5      |       Grouping       |    (...)    |
          |            | Function Expressions | _name_(...) |
          +------------+----------------------+-------------+
          |     4      |     Logical NOT      |      !      |
          +------------+----------------------+-------------+
          |     3      |      Relations       |    == !=    |
          |            |                      |  < <= > >=  |
          +------------+----------------------+-------------+
          |     2      |     Logical AND      |      &&     |
          +------------+----------------------+-------------+
          |     1      |      Logical OR      |      ||     |
          +------------+----------------------+-------------+
            Table 10: Filter Expression Operator Precedence

2.3.5.2. Semantics

 The filter selector works with arrays and objects exclusively.  Its
 result is a list of (_zero_, _one_, _multiple_, or _all_) their array
 elements or member values, respectively.  Applied to a primitive
 value, it selects nothing (and therefore does not contribute to the
 result of the filter selector).
 In the resultant nodelist, children of an array are ordered by their
 position in the array.  The order in which the children of an object
 (as opposed to an array) appear in the resultant nodelist is not
 stipulated, since JSON objects are unordered.

2.3.5.2.1. Existence Tests

 A query by itself in a logical context is an existence test that
 yields true if the query selects at least one node and yields false
 if the query does not select any nodes.
 Existence tests differ from comparisons in that:
  • They work with arbitrary relative or absolute queries (not just

singular queries).

  • They work with queries that select structured values.
 To examine the value of a node selected by a query, an explicit
 comparison is necessary.  For example, to test whether the node
 selected by the query @.foo has the value null, use @.foo == null
 (see Section 2.6) rather than the negated existence test !@.foo
 (which yields false if @.foo selects a node, regardless of the node's
 value).  Similarly, @.foo == false yields true only if @.foo selects
 a node and the value of that node is false.

2.3.5.2.2. Comparisons

 The comparison operators == and < are defined first, and then these
 are used to define !=, <=, >, and >=.
 When either side of a comparison results in an empty nodelist or the
 special result Nothing (see Section 2.4.1):
  • A comparison using the operator == yields true if and only the

other side also results in an empty nodelist or the special result

    Nothing.
  • A comparison using the operator < yields false.
 When any query or function expression on either side of a comparison
 results in a nodelist consisting of a single node, that side is
 replaced by the value of its node and then:
  • A comparison using the operator == yields true if and only if the

comparison is between:

  1. numbers expected to interoperate, as per Section 2.2 of I-JSON

[RFC7493], that compare equal using normal mathematical

       equality,
  1. numbers, at least one of which is not expected to interoperate

as per I-JSON, where the numbers compare equal using an

       implementation-specific equality,
  1. equal primitive values that are not numbers,
  1. equal arrays, that is, arrays of the same length where each

element of the first array is equal to the corresponding

       element of the second array, or
  1. equal objects with no duplicate names, that is, where:
       o  both objects have the same collection of names (with no
          duplicates) and
       o  for each of those names, the values associated with the name
          by the objects are equal.
  • A comparison using the operator < yields true if and only if the

comparison is between values that are both numbers or both strings

    and that satisfy the comparison:
  1. numbers expected to interoperate, as per Section 2.2 of I-JSON

[RFC7493], MUST compare using the normal mathematical ordering;

       numbers not expected to interoperate, as per I-JSON, MAY
       compare using an implementation-specific ordering,
  1. the empty string compares less than any non-empty string, and
  1. a non-empty string compares less than another non-empty string

if and only if the first string starts with a lower Unicode

       scalar value than the second string or if both strings start
       with the same Unicode scalar value and the remainder of the
       first string compares less than the remainder of the second
       string.
 !=, <=, >, and >= are defined in terms of the other comparison
 operators.  For any a and b:
  • The comparison a != b yields true if and only if a == b yields

false.

  • The comparison a ⇐ b yields true if and only if a < b yields true

or a == b yields true.

  • The comparison a > b yields true if and only if b < a yields true.
  • The comparison a >= b yields true if and only if b < a yields true

or a == b yields true.

2.3.5.3. Examples

 The first set of examples shows some comparison expressions and their
 result with a given JSON value as input.
 JSON:
 {
   "obj": {"x": "y"},
   "arr": [2, 3]
 }
 Comparisons:
     +========================+========+========================+
     |       Comparison       | Result |        Comment         |
     +========================+========+========================+
     | $.absent1 == $.absent2 |  true  |    Empty nodelists     |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     | $.absent1 <= $.absent2 |  true  |     == implies <=      |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |    $.absent == 'g'     | false  |     Empty nodelist     |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     | $.absent1 != $.absent2 | false  |    Empty nodelists     |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |    $.absent != 'g'     |  true  |     Empty nodelist     |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |         1 <= 2         |  true  |   Numeric comparison   |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |         1 > 2          | false  |   Numeric comparison   |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |       13 == '13'       | false  |     Type mismatch      |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |       'a' <= 'b'       |  true  |   String comparison    |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |       'a' > 'b'        | false  |   String comparison    |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |     $.obj == $.arr     | false  |     Type mismatch      |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |     $.obj != $.arr     |  true  |     Type mismatch      |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |     $.obj == $.obj     |  true  |   Object comparison    |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |     $.obj != $.obj     | false  |   Object comparison    |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |     $.arr == $.arr     |  true  |    Array comparison    |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |     $.arr != $.arr     | false  |    Array comparison    |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |      $.obj == 17       | false  |     Type mismatch      |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |      $.obj != 17       |  true  |     Type mismatch      |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |     $.obj <= $.arr     | false  | Objects and arrays do  |
     |                        |        | not offer < comparison |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |     $.obj < $.arr      | false  | Objects and arrays do  |
     |                        |        | not offer < comparison |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |     $.obj <= $.obj     |  true  |     == implies <=      |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |     $.arr <= $.arr     |  true  |     == implies <=      |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |       1 <= $.arr       | false  | Arrays do not offer <  |
     |                        |        |       comparison       |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |       1 >= $.arr       | false  | Arrays do not offer <  |
     |                        |        |       comparison       |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |       1 > $.arr        | false  | Arrays do not offer <  |
     |                        |        |       comparison       |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |       1 < $.arr        | false  | Arrays do not offer <  |
     |                        |        |       comparison       |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |      true <= true      |  true  |     == implies <=      |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
     |      true > true       | false  | Booleans do not offer  |
     |                        |        |      < comparison      |
     +------------------------+--------+------------------------+
                    Table 11: Comparison Examples
 The second set of examples shows some complete JSONPath queries that
 make use of filter selectors and the results of evaluating these
 queries on a given JSON value as input.  (Note: Two of the queries
 employ function extensions; please see Sections 2.4.6 and 2.4.7 for
 details about these.)
 JSON:
 {
   "a": [3, 5, 1, 2, 4, 6,
         {"b": "j"},
         {"b": "k"},
         {"b": {}},
         {"b": "kilo"}
        ],
   "o": {"p": 1, "q": 2, "r": 3, "s": 5, "t": {"u": 6}},
   "e": "f"
 }
 Queries:
 The examples in Table 12 show the filter selector in use by a child
 segment.
 +==================+==============+=============+===================+
 |      Query       | Result       |    Result   | Comment           |
 |                  |              |    Paths    |                   |
 +==================+==============+=============+===================+
 |   $.a[?@.b ==    | {"b":        |  $['a'][9]  | Member value      |
 |     'kilo']      | "kilo"}      |             | comparison        |
 +------------------+--------------+-------------+-------------------+
 |   $.a[?(@.b ==   | {"b":        |  $['a'][9]  | Equivalent query  |
 |     'kilo')]     | "kilo"}      |             | with enclosing    |
 |                  |              |             | parentheses       |
 +------------------+--------------+-------------+-------------------+
 |   $.a[?@>3.5]    | 5            |  $['a'][1]  | Array value       |
 |                  | 4            |  $['a'][4]  | comparison        |
 |                  | 6            |  $['a'][5]  |                   |
 +------------------+--------------+-------------+-------------------+
 |    $.a[?@.b]     | {"b": "j"}   |  $['a'][6]  | Array value       |
 |                  | {"b": "k"}   |  $['a'][7]  | existence         |
 |                  | {"b": {}}    |  $['a'][8]  |                   |
 |                  | {"b":        |  $['a'][9]  |                   |
 |                  | "kilo"}      |             |                   |
 +------------------+--------------+-------------+-------------------+
 |     $[?@.*]      | [3, 5, 1,    |    $['a']   | Existence of non- |
 |                  | 2, 4, 6,     |    $['o']   | singular queries  |
 |                  | {"b": "j"},  |             |                   |
 |                  | {"b": "k"},  |             |                   |
 |                  | {"b": {}},   |             |                   |
 |                  | {"b":        |             |                   |
 |                  | "kilo"}]     |             |                   |
 |                  | {"p": 1,     |             |                   |
 |                  | "q": 2,      |             |                   |
 |                  | "r": 3,      |             |                   |
 |                  | "s": 5,      |             |                   |
 |                  | "t": {"u":   |             |                   |
 |                  | 6}}          |             |                   |
 +------------------+--------------+-------------+-------------------+
 |   $[?@[?@.b]]    | [3, 5, 1,    |    $['a']   | Nested filters    |
 |                  | 2, 4, 6,     |             |                   |
 |                  | {"b": "j"},  |             |                   |
 |                  | {"b": "k"},  |             |                   |
 |                  | {"b": {}},   |             |                   |
 |                  | {"b":        |             |                   |
 |                  | "kilo"}]     |             |                   |
 +------------------+--------------+-------------+-------------------+
 | $.o[?@<3, ?@<3]  | 1            | $['o']['p'] | Non-deterministic |
 |                  | 2            | $['o']['q'] | ordering          |
 |                  | 2            | $['o']['q'] |                   |
 |                  | 1            | $['o']['p'] |                   |
 +------------------+--------------+-------------+-------------------+
 | $.a[?@<2 || @.b  | 1            |  $['a'][2]  | Array value       |
 |     == "k"]      | {"b": "k"}   |  $['a'][7]  | logical OR        |
 +------------------+--------------+-------------+-------------------+
 | $.a[?match(@.b,  | {"b": "j"}   |  $['a'][6]  | Array value       |
 |     "[jk]")]     | {"b": "k"}   |  $['a'][7]  | regular           |
 |                  |              |             | expression match  |
 +------------------+--------------+-------------+-------------------+
 | $.a[?search(@.b, | {"b": "j"}   |  $['a'][6]  | Array value       |
 |     "[jk]")]     | {"b": "k"}   |  $['a'][7]  | regular           |
 |                  | {"b":        |  $['a'][9]  | expression search |
 |                  | "kilo"}      |             |                   |
 +------------------+--------------+-------------+-------------------+
 | $.o[?@>1 && @<4] | 2            | $['o']['q'] | Object value      |
 |                  | 3            | $['o']['r'] | logical AND       |
 +------------------+--------------+-------------+-------------------+
 | $.o[?@>1 && @<4] | 3            | $['o']['r'] | Alternative       |
 |                  | 2            | $['o']['q'] | result            |
 +------------------+--------------+-------------+-------------------+
 | $.o[?@.u || @.x] | {"u": 6}     | $['o']['t'] | Object value      |
 |                  |              |             | logical OR        |
 +------------------+--------------+-------------+-------------------+
 | $.a[?@.b == $.x] | 3            |  $['a'][0]  | Comparison of     |
 |                  | 5            |  $['a'][1]  | queries with no   |
 |                  | 1            |  $['a'][2]  | values            |
 |                  | 2            |  $['a'][3]  |                   |
 |                  | 4            |  $['a'][4]  |                   |
 |                  | 6            |  $['a'][5]  |                   |
 +------------------+--------------+-------------+-------------------+
 |   $.a[?@ == @]   | 3            |  $['a'][0]  | Comparisons of    |
 |                  | 5            |  $['a'][1]  | primitive and of  |
 |                  | 1            |  $['a'][2]  | structured values |
 |                  | 2            |  $['a'][3]  |                   |
 |                  | 4            |  $['a'][4]  |                   |
 |                  | 6            |  $['a'][5]  |                   |
 |                  | {"b": "j"}   |  $['a'][6]  |                   |
 |                  | {"b": "k"}   |  $['a'][7]  |                   |
 |                  | {"b": {}}    |  $['a'][8]  |                   |
 |                  | {"b":        |  $['a'][9]  |                   |
 |                  | "kilo"}      |             |                   |
 +------------------+--------------+-------------+-------------------+
                   Table 12: Filter Selector Examples
 The example above with the query $.o[?@<3, ?@<3] shows that a filter
 selector may produce nodelists in distinct orders each time it
 appears in the child segment.

2.4. Function Extensions

 Beyond the filter expression functionality defined in the preceding
 subsections, JSONPath defines an extension point that can be used to
 add filter expression functionality: "Function Extensions".
 This section defines the extension point and some function extensions
 that use this extension point.  While these mechanisms are designed
 to use the extension point, they are an integral part of the JSONPath
 specification and are expected to be implemented like any other
 integral part of this specification.
 A function extension defines a registered name (see Section 3.2) that
 can be applied to a sequence of zero or more arguments, producing a
 result.  Each registered function name is unique.
 A function extension MUST be defined such that its evaluation is free
 of side effects, i.e., all possible orders of evaluation and choices
 of short-circuiting or full evaluation of an expression containing it
 MUST lead to the same result.  (Note: Memoization or logging are not
 side effects in this sense as they are visible at the implementation
 level only -- they do not influence the result of the evaluation.)
 function-name       = function-name-first *function-name-char
 function-name-first = LCALPHA
 function-name-char  = function-name-first / "_" / DIGIT
 LCALPHA             = %x61-7A  ; "a".."z"
 function-expr       = function-name "(" S [function-argument
                          *(S "," S function-argument)] S ")"
 function-argument   = literal /
                       filter-query / ; (includes singular-query)
                       logical-expr /
                       function-expr
 Any function expressions in a query must be well-formed (by
 conforming to the above ABNF) and well-typed; otherwise, the JSONPath
 implementation MUST raise an error (see Section 2.1).  To define
 which function expressions are well-typed, a type system is first
 introduced.

2.4.1. Type System for Function Expressions

 Each parameter and the result of a function extension must have a
 declared type.
 Declared types enable checking a JSONPath query for well-typedness
 independent of any query argument the JSONPath query is applied to.
 Table 13 defines the available types in terms of the instances they
 contain.
             +=============+=============================+
             | Type        | Instances                   |
             +=============+=============================+
             | ValueType   | JSON values or Nothing      |
             +-------------+-----------------------------+
             | LogicalType | LogicalTrue or LogicalFalse |
             +-------------+-----------------------------+
             | NodesType   | Nodelists                   |
             +-------------+-----------------------------+
                Table 13: Function Extension Type System
 Notes:
  • The only instances that can be directly represented in JSONPath

syntax are certain JSON values in ValueType expressed as literals

    (which, in JSONPath, are limited to primitive values).
  • The special result Nothing represents the absence of a JSON value

and is distinct from any JSON value, including null.

  • LogicalTrue and LogicalFalse are unrelated to the JSON values

expressed by the literals true and false.

2.4.2. Type Conversion

 Just as queries can be used in logical expressions by testing for the
 existence of at least one node (Section 2.3.5.2.1), a function
 expression of declared type NodesType can be used as a function
 argument for a parameter of declared type LogicalType, with the
 equivalent conversion rule:
  • If the nodelist contains one or more nodes, the conversion result

is LogicalTrue.

  • If the nodelist is empty, the conversion result is LogicalFalse.
 Notes:
  • Extraction of a value from a nodelist can be performed in several

ways, so an implicit conversion from NodesType to ValueType may be

    surprising and has therefore not been defined.
  • A function expression with a declared type of NodesType can

indirectly be used as an argument for a parameter of declared type

    ValueType by wrapping the expression in a call to a function
    extension, such as value() (see Section 2.4.8), that takes a
    parameter of type NodesType and returns a result of type
    ValueType.
 The well-typedness of function expressions can now be defined in
 terms of this type system.

2.4.3. Well-Typedness of Function Expressions

 For a function expression to be well-typed:
 1.  Its declared type must be well-typed in the context in which it
     occurs.
     As per the grammar, a function expression can occur in three
     different immediate contexts, which lead to the following
     conditions for well-typedness:
     As a test-expr in a logical expression:
        The function's declared result type is LogicalType or (giving
        rise to conversion as per Section 2.4.2) NodesType.
     As a comparable in a comparison:
        The function's declared result type is ValueType.
     As a function-argument in another function expression:
        The function's declared result type fulfills the following
        rules for the corresponding parameter of the enclosing
        function.
 2.  Its arguments must be well-typed for the declared type of the
     corresponding parameters.
     The arguments of the function expression are well-typed when each
     argument of the function can be used for the declared type of the
     corresponding parameter, according to one of the following
     conditions:
  • When the argument is a function expression with the same

declared result type as the declared type of the parameter.

  • When the declared type of the parameter is LogicalType and the

argument is one of the following:

  1. A function expression with declared result type NodesType.

In this case, the argument is converted to LogicalType as

           per Section 2.4.2.
  1. A logical-expr that is not a function expression.
  • When the declared type of the parameter is NodesType and the

argument is a query (which includes singular query).

  • When the declared type of the parameter is ValueType and the

argument is one of the following:

  1. A value expressed as a literal.
  1. A singular query. In this case:
           o  If the query results in a nodelist consisting of a
              single node, the argument is the value of the node.
           o  If the query results in an empty nodelist, the argument
              is the special result Nothing.

2.4.4. length() Function Extension

 Parameters:
    1.  ValueType
 Result:  ValueType (unsigned integer or Nothing)
 The length() function extension provides a way to compute the length
 of a value and make that available for further processing in the
 filter expression:
 $[?length(@.authors) >= 5]
 Its only argument is an instance of ValueType (possibly taken from a
 singular query, as in the example above).  The result is also an
 instance of ValueType: an unsigned integer or the special result
 Nothing.
  • If the argument value is a string, the result is the number of

Unicode scalar values in the string.

  • If the argument value is an array, the result is the number of

elements in the array.

  • If the argument value is an object, the result is the number of

members in the object.

  • For any other argument value, the result is the special result

Nothing.

2.4.5. count() Function Extension

 Parameters:
    1.  NodesType
 Result:  ValueType (unsigned integer)
 The count() function extension provides a way to obtain the number of
 nodes in a nodelist and make that available for further processing in
 the filter expression:
 $[?count(@.*.author) >= 5]
 Its only argument is a nodelist.  The result is a value (an unsigned
 integer) that gives the number of nodes in the nodelist.
 Notes:
  • There is no deduplication of the nodelist.
  • The number of nodes in the nodelist is counted independent of

their values or any children they may have, e.g., the count of a

    non-empty singular nodelist such as count(@) is always 1.

2.4.6. match() Function Extension

 Parameters:
    1.  ValueType (string)
    2.  ValueType (string conforming to [RFC9485])
 Result:  LogicalType
 The match() function extension provides a way to check whether (the
 entirety of; see Section 2.4.7) a given string matches a given
 regular expression, which is in the form described in [RFC9485].
 $[?match(@.date, "1974-05-..")]
 Its arguments are instances of ValueType (possibly taken from a
 singular query, as for the first argument in the example above).  If
 the first argument is not a string or the second argument is not a
 string conforming to [RFC9485], the result is LogicalFalse.
 Otherwise, the string that is the first argument is matched against
 the I-Regexp contained in the string that is the second argument; the
 result is LogicalTrue if the string matches the I-Regexp and is
 LogicalFalse otherwise.

2.4.7. search() Function Extension

 Parameters:
    1.  ValueType (string)
    2.  ValueType (string conforming to [RFC9485])
 Result:  LogicalType
 The search() function extension provides a way to check whether a
 given string contains a substring that matches a given regular
 expression, which is in the form described in [RFC9485].
 $[?search(@.author, "[BR]ob")]
 Its arguments are instances of ValueType (possibly taken from a
 singular query, as for the first argument in the example above).  If
 the first argument is not a string or the second argument is not a
 string conforming to [RFC9485], the result is LogicalFalse.
 Otherwise, the string that is the first argument is searched for a
 substring that matches the I-Regexp contained in the string that is
 the second argument; the result is LogicalTrue if at least one such
 substring exists and is LogicalFalse otherwise.

2.4.8. value() Function Extension

 Parameters:
    1.  NodesType
 Result:  ValueType
 The value() function extension provides a way to convert an instance
 of NodesType to a value and make that available for further
 processing in the filter expression:
 $[?value(@..color) == "red"]
 Its only argument is an instance of NodesType (possibly taken from a
 filter-query, as in the example above).  The result is an instance of
 ValueType.
  • If the argument contains a single node, the result is the value of

the node.

  • If the argument is the empty nodelist or contains multiple nodes,

the result is Nothing.

 Note: A singular query may be used anywhere where a ValueType is
 expected, so there is no need to use the value() function extension
 with a singular query.

2.4.9. Examples

  +======================+==========================================+
  |        Query         | Comment                                  |
  +======================+==========================================+
  |  $[?length(@) < 3]   | well-typed                               |
  +----------------------+------------------------------------------+
  | $[?length(@.*) < 3]  | not well-typed since @.* is a non-       |
  |                      | singular query                           |
  +----------------------+------------------------------------------+
  | $[?count(@.*) == 1]  | well-typed                               |
  +----------------------+------------------------------------------+
  |  $[?count(1) == 1]   | not well-typed since 1 is not a query or |
  |                      | function expression                      |
  +----------------------+------------------------------------------+
  |  $[?count(foo(@.*))  | well-typed, where foo() is a function    |
  |        == 1]         | extension with a parameter of type       |
  |                      | NodesType and result type NodesType      |
  +----------------------+------------------------------------------+
  | $[?match(@.timezone, | well-typed                               |
  |    'Europe/.*')]     |                                          |
  +----------------------+------------------------------------------+
  | $[?match(@.timezone, | not well-typed as LogicalType may not be |
  |   'Europe/.*') ==    | used in comparisons                      |
  |        true]         |                                          |
  +----------------------+------------------------------------------+
  |  $[?value(@..color)  | well-typed                               |
  |      == "red"]       |                                          |
  +----------------------+------------------------------------------+
  | $[?value(@..color)]  | not well-typed as ValueType may not be   |
  |                      | used in a test expression                |
  +----------------------+------------------------------------------+
  |     $[?bar(@.a)]     | well-typed for any function bar() with a |
  |                      | parameter of any declared type and       |
  |                      | result type LogicalType                  |
  +----------------------+------------------------------------------+
  |     $[?bnl(@.*)]     | well-typed for any function bnl() with a |
  |                      | parameter of declared type NodesType or  |
  |                      | LogicalType and result type LogicalType  |
  +----------------------+------------------------------------------+
  |    $[?blt(1==1)]     | well-typed, where blt() is a function    |
  |                      | with a parameter of declared type        |
  |                      | LogicalType and result type LogicalType  |
  +----------------------+------------------------------------------+
  |      $[?blt(1)]      | not well-typed for the same function     |
  |                      | blt(), as 1 is not a query, logical-     |
  |                      | expr, or function expression             |
  +----------------------+------------------------------------------+
  |      $[?bal(1)]      | well-typed, where bal() is a function    |
  |                      | with a parameter of declared type        |
  |                      | ValueType and result type LogicalType    |
  +----------------------+------------------------------------------+
                 Table 14: Function Expression Examples

2.5. Segments

 For each node in an input nodelist, segments apply one or more
 selectors to the node and concatenate the results of each selector
 into per-input-node nodelists, which are then concatenated in the
 order of the input nodelist to form a single segment result nodelist.
 It turns out that the more segments there are in a query, the greater
 the depth in the input value of the nodes of the resultant nodelist:
  • A query with N segments, where N >= 0, produces a nodelist

consisting of nodes at depth in the input value of N or greater.

  • A query with N segments, where N >= 0, all of which are child

segments (Section 2.5.1), produces a nodelist consisting of nodes

    precisely at depth N in the input value.
 There are two kinds of segments: child segments and descendant
 segments.
 segment             = child-segment / descendant-segment
 The syntax and semantics of each kind of segment are defined below.

2.5.1. Child Segment

2.5.1.1. Syntax

 The child segment consists of a non-empty, comma-separated sequence
 of selectors enclosed in square brackets.
 Shorthand notations are also provided for when there is a single
 wildcard or name selector.
 child-segment       = bracketed-selection /
                       ("."
                        (wildcard-selector /
                         member-name-shorthand))
 bracketed-selection = "[" S selector *(S "," S selector) S "]"
 member-name-shorthand = name-first *name-char
 name-first          = ALPHA /
                       "_"   /
                       %x80-D7FF /
                          ; skip surrogate code points
                       %xE000-10FFFF
 name-char           = name-first / DIGIT
 DIGIT               = %x30-39              ; 0-9
 ALPHA               = %x41-5A / %x61-7A    ; A-Z / a-z
 .*, a child-segment directly built from a wildcard-selector, is
 shorthand for [*].
 .<member-name>, a child-segment built from a member-name-shorthand,
 is shorthand for ['<member-name>'].  Note: This can only be used with
 member names that are composed of certain characters, as specified in
 the ABNF rule member-name-shorthand.  Thus, for example, $.foo.bar is
 shorthand for $['foo']['bar'] (but not for $['foo.bar']).

2.5.1.2. Semantics

 A child segment contains a sequence of selectors, each of which
 selects zero or more children of the input value.
 Selectors of different kinds may be combined within a single child
 segment.
 For each node in the input nodelist, the resulting nodelist of a
 child segment is the concatenation of the nodelists from each of its
 selectors in the order that the selectors appear in the list.  Note:
 Any node matched by more than one selector is kept as many times in
 the nodelist.
 Where a selector can produce a nodelist in more than one possible
 order, each occurrence of the selector in the child segment may
 produce a nodelist in a distinct order.
 In summary, a child segment drills down one more level into the
 structure of the input value.

2.5.1.3. Examples

 JSON:
 ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f", "g"]
 Queries:
               +========+========+========+============+
               | Query  | Result | Result | Comment    |
               |        |        | Paths  |            |
               +========+========+========+============+
               |  $[0,  | "a"    |  $[0]  | Indices    |
               |   3]   | "d"    |  $[3]  |            |
               +--------+--------+--------+------------+
               | $[0:2, | "a"    |  $[0]  | Slice and  |
               |   5]   | "b"    |  $[1]  | index      |
               |        | "f"    |  $[5]  |            |
               +--------+--------+--------+------------+
               |  $[0,  | "a"    |  $[0]  | Duplicated |
               |   0]   | "a"    |  $[0]  | entries    |
               +--------+--------+--------+------------+
                    Table 15: Child Segment Examples

2.5.2. Descendant Segment

2.5.2.1. Syntax

 The descendant segment consists of a double dot .. followed by a
 child segment (using bracket notation).
 Shorthand notations are also provided that correspond to the
 shorthand forms of the child segment.
 descendant-segment  = ".." (bracketed-selection /
                             wildcard-selector /
                             member-name-shorthand)
 ..*, the descendant-segment directly built from a wildcard-selector,
 is shorthand for ..[*].
 ..<member-name>, a descendant-segment built from a member-name-
 shorthand, is shorthand for ..['<member-name>'].  Note: As with the
 similar shorthand of a child-segment, this can only be used with
 member names that are composed of certain characters, as specified in
 the ABNF rule member-name-shorthand.
 Note: On its own, .. is not a valid segment.

2.5.2.2. Semantics

 A descendant segment produces zero or more descendants of an input
 value.
 For each node in the input nodelist, a descendant selector visits the
 input node and each of its descendants such that:
  • nodes of any array are visited in array order, and
  • nodes are visited before their descendants.
 The order in which the children of an object are visited is not
 stipulated, since JSON objects are unordered.
 Suppose the descendant segment is of the form ..[<selectors>] (after
 converting any shorthand form to bracket notation), and the nodes, in
 the order visited, are D1, ..., Dn (where n >= 1).  Note: D1 is the
 input value.
 For each i such that 1 <= i <= n, the nodelist Ri is defined to be a
 result of applying the child segment [<selectors>] to the node Di.
 For each node in the input nodelist, the result of the descendant
 segment is the concatenation of R1, ..., Rn (in that order).  These
 results are then concatenated in input nodelist order to form the
 result of the segment.
 In summary, a descendant segment drills down one or more levels into
 the structure of each input value.

2.5.2.3. Examples

 JSON:
 {
   "o": {"j": 1, "k": 2},
   "a": [5, 3, [{"j": 4}, {"k": 6}]]
 }
 Queries:
 (Note that the fourth example can be expressed in two equivalent
 queries, shown in Table 16 in one table row instead of two almost-
 identical rows.)
 +==========+================+===================+===================+
 |  Query   | Result         |    Result Paths   | Comment           |
 +==========+================+===================+===================+
 |   $..j   | 1              |    $['o']['j']    | Object values     |
 |          | 4              | $['a'][2][0]['j'] |                   |
 +----------+----------------+-------------------+-------------------+
 |   $..j   | 4              | $['a'][2][0]['j'] | Alternative       |
 |          | 1              |    $['o']['j']    | result            |
 +----------+----------------+-------------------+-------------------+
 |  $..[0]  | 5              |     $['a'][0]     | Array values      |
 |          | {"j": 4}       |    $['a'][2][0]   |                   |
 +----------+----------------+-------------------+-------------------+
 |  $..[*]  | {"j": 1,       |       $['o']      | All values        |
 |    or    | "k": 2}        |       $['a']      |                   |
 |   $..*   | [5, 3,         |    $['o']['j']    |                   |
 |          | [{"j": 4},     |    $['o']['k']    |                   |
 |          | {"k": 6}]]     |     $['a'][0]     |                   |
 |          | 1              |     $['a'][1]     |                   |
 |          | 2              |     $['a'][2]     |                   |
 |          | 5              |    $['a'][2][0]   |                   |
 |          | 3              |    $['a'][2][1]   |                   |
 |          | [{"j": 4},     | $['a'][2][0]['j'] |                   |
 |          | {"k": 6}]      | $['a'][2][1]['k'] |                   |
 |          | {"j": 4}       |                   |                   |
 |          | {"k": 6}       |                   |                   |
 |          | 4              |                   |                   |
 |          | 6              |                   |                   |
 +----------+----------------+-------------------+-------------------+
 |   $..o   | {"j": 1,       |       $['o']      | Input value is    |
 |          | "k": 2}        |                   | visited           |
 +----------+----------------+-------------------+-------------------+
 | $.o..[*, | 1              |    $['o']['j']    | Non-deterministic |
 |    *]    | 2              |    $['o']['k']    | ordering          |
 |          | 2              |    $['o']['k']    |                   |
 |          | 1              |    $['o']['j']    |                   |
 +----------+----------------+-------------------+-------------------+
 | $.a..[0, | 5              |     $['a'][0]     | Multiple segments |
 |    1]    | 3              |     $['a'][1]     |                   |
 |          | {"j": 4}       |    $['a'][2][0]   |                   |
 |          | {"k": 6}       |    $['a'][2][1]   |                   |
 +----------+----------------+-------------------+-------------------+
                 Table 16: Descendant Segment Examples
 Note: The ordering of the results for the $..[*] and $..* examples
 above is not guaranteed, except that:
  • {"j": 1, "k": 2} must appear before 1 and 2,
  • [5, 3, [{"j": 4}, {"k": 6}]] must appear before 5, 3, and [{"j":

4}, {"k": 6}],

  • 5 must appear before 3, which must appear before [{"j": 4}, {"k":

6}],

  • 5 and 3 must appear before {"j": 4}, 4, {"k": 6}, and 6,
  • [{"j": 4}, {"k": 6}] must appear before {"j": 4} and {"k": 6},
  • {"j": 4} must appear before {"k": 6},
  • {"k": 6} must appear before 4, and
  • 4 must appear before 6.
 The example above with the query $.o..[*, *] shows that a selector
 may produce nodelists in distinct orders each time it appears in the
 descendant segment.
 The example above with the query $.a..[0, 1] shows that the child
 segment [0, 1] is applied to each node in turn (rather than the nodes
 being visited once per selector, which is the case for some JSONPath
 implementations that do not conform to this specification).

2.6. Semantics of null

 Note: JSON null is treated the same as any other JSON value, i.e., it
 is not taken to mean "undefined" or "missing".

2.6.1. Examples

 JSON:
 {"a": null, "b": [null], "c": [{}], "null": 1}
 Queries:
 +=================+========+===========+===========================+
 |      Query      | Result |   Result  | Comment                   |
 |                 |        |   Paths   |                           |
 +=================+========+===========+===========================+
 |       $.a       | null   |   $['a']  | Object value              |
 +-----------------+--------+-----------+---------------------------+
 |      $.a[0]     |        |           | null used as array        |
 +-----------------+--------+-----------+---------------------------+
 |      $.a.d      |        |           | null used as object       |
 +-----------------+--------+-----------+---------------------------+
 |      $.b[0]     | null   | $['b'][0] | Array value               |
 +-----------------+--------+-----------+---------------------------+
 |      $.b[*]     | null   | $['b'][0] | Array value               |
 +-----------------+--------+-----------+---------------------------+
 |     $.b[?@]     | null   | $['b'][0] | Existence                 |
 +-----------------+--------+-----------+---------------------------+
 |  $.b[?@==null]  | null   | $['b'][0] | Comparison                |
 +-----------------+--------+-----------+---------------------------+
 | $.c[?@.d==null] |        |           | Comparison with "missing" |
 |                 |        |           | value                     |
 +-----------------+--------+-----------+---------------------------+
 |      $.null     | 1      | $['null'] | Not JSON null at all,     |
 |                 |        |           | just a member name string |
 +-----------------+--------+-----------+---------------------------+
         Table 17: Examples Involving (or Not Involving) null

2.7. Normalized Paths

 A Normalized Path is a unique representation of the location of a
 node in a value that uniquely identifies the node in the value.
 Specifically, a Normalized Path is a JSONPath query with restricted
 syntax (defined below), e.g., $['book'][3], which when applied to the
 value, results in a nodelist consisting of just the node identified
 by the Normalized Path.  Note: A Normalized Path represents the
 identity of a node _in a specific value_. There is precisely one
 Normalized Path identifying any particular node in a value.
 A nodelist may be represented compactly in JSON as an array of
 strings, where the strings are Normalized Paths.
 Normalized Paths provide a predictable format that simplifies testing
 and post-processing of nodelists, e.g., to remove duplicate nodes.
 Normalized Paths are used in this document as result paths in
 examples.
 Normalized Paths use the canonical bracket notation, rather than dot
 notation.
 Single quotes are used in Normalized Paths to delimit string member
 names.  This reduces the number of characters that need escaping when
 Normalized Paths appear in strings delimited by double quotes, e.g.,
 in JSON texts.
 Certain characters are escaped in Normalized Paths in one and only
 one way; all other characters are unescaped.
    |  Note: Normalized Paths are singular queries, but not all
    |  singular queries are Normalized Paths.  For example, $[-3] is a
    |  singular query but is not a Normalized Path.  The Normalized
    |  Path equivalent to $[-3] would have an index equal to the array
    |  length minus 3.  (The array length must be at least 3 if $[-3]
    |  is to identify a node.)
 normalized-path      = root-identifier *(normal-index-segment)
 normal-index-segment = "[" normal-selector "]"
 normal-selector      = normal-name-selector / normal-index-selector
 normal-name-selector = %x27 *normal-single-quoted %x27 ; 'string'
 normal-single-quoted = normal-unescaped /
                        ESC normal-escapable
 normal-unescaped     =    ; omit %x0-1F control codes
                        %x20-26 /
                           ; omit 0x27 '
                        %x28-5B /
                           ; omit 0x5C \
                        %x5D-D7FF /
                           ; skip surrogate code points
                        %xE000-10FFFF
 normal-escapable     = %x62 / ; b BS backspace U+0008
                        %x66 / ; f FF form feed U+000C
                        %x6E / ; n LF line feed U+000A
                        %x72 / ; r CR carriage return U+000D
                        %x74 / ; t HT horizontal tab U+0009
                        "'" /  ; ' apostrophe U+0027
                        "\" /  ; \ backslash (reverse solidus) U+005C
                        (%x75 normal-hexchar)
                                        ; certain values u00xx U+00XX
 normal-hexchar       = "0" "0"
                        (
                           ("0" %x30-37) / ; "00"-"07"
                              ; omit U+0008-U+000A BS HT LF
                           ("0" %x62) /    ; "0b"
                              ; omit U+000C-U+000D FF CR
                           ("0" %x65-66) / ; "0e"-"0f"
                           ("1" normal-HEXDIG)
                        )
 normal-HEXDIG        = DIGIT / %x61-66    ; "0"-"9", "a"-"f"
 normal-index-selector = "0" / (DIGIT1 *DIGIT)
                         ; non-negative decimal integer
 Since there can only be one Normalized Path identifying a given node,
 the syntax stipulates which characters are escaped and which are not.
 So the definition of normal-hexchar is designed for hex escaping of
 characters that are not straightforwardly printable, for example,
 U+000B LINE TABULATION, but for which no standard JSON escape, such
 as \n, is available.

2.7.1. Examples

     +=============+=================+==========================+
     |     Path    | Normalized Path | Comment                  |
     +=============+=================+==========================+
     |     $.a     |      $['a']     | Object value             |
     +-------------+-----------------+--------------------------+
     |     $[1]    |       $[1]      | Array index              |
     +-------------+-----------------+--------------------------+
     |    $[-3]    |       $[2]      | Negative array index for |
     |             |                 | an array of length 5     |
     +-------------+-----------------+--------------------------+
     |  $.a.b[1:2] |  $['a']['b'][1] | Nested structure         |
     +-------------+-----------------+--------------------------+
     | $["\u000B"] |   $['\u000b']   | Unicode escape           |
     +-------------+-----------------+--------------------------+
     | $["\u0061"] |      $['a']     | Unicode character        |
     +-------------+-----------------+--------------------------+
                  Table 18: Normalized Path Examples

3. IANA Considerations

3.1. Registration of Media Type application/jsonpath

 IANA has registered the following media type [RFC6838]:
 Type name:  application
 Subtype name:  jsonpath
 Required parameters:  N/A
 Optional parameters:  N/A
 Encoding considerations:  binary (UTF-8)
 Security considerations:  See the Security Considerations section of
    RFC 9535.
 Interoperability considerations:  N/A
 Published specification:  RFC 9535
 Applications that use this media type:  Applications that need to
    convey queries in JSON data
 Fragment identifier considerations:  N/A
 Additional information:
    Deprecated alias names for this type:  N/A
    Magic number(s):  N/A
    File extension(s):  N/A
    Macintosh file type code(s):  N/A
 Person & email address to contact for further information:
    iesg@ietf.org
 Intended usage:  COMMON
 Restrictions on usage:  N/A
 Author:  JSONPath WG
 Change controller:  IETF

3.2. Function Extensions Subregistry

 Per this specification, IANA has created a new "Function Extensions"
 subregistry in a new "JSONPath" registry.  The "Function Extensions"
 subregistry has the policy "Expert Review" (Section 4.5 of
 [RFC8126]).
 The experts are instructed to be frugal in the allocation of function
 extension names that are suggestive of generally applicable
 semantics, keeping them in reserve for functions that are likely to
 enjoy wide use and can make good use of their conciseness.  The
 expert is also instructed to direct the registrant to provide a
 specification (Section 4.6 of [RFC8126]) but can make exceptions, for
 instance, when a specification is not available at the time of
 registration but is likely forthcoming.  If the expert becomes aware
 of function extensions that are deployed and in use, they may also
 initiate a registration on their own if they deem such a registration
 can avert potential future collisions.
 Each entry in the subregistry must include the following:
 Function Name:
    A lowercase ASCII [RFC0020] string that starts with a letter and
    can contain letters, digits, and underscore characters afterwards
    ([a-z][_a-z0-9]*).  No other entry in the subregistry can have the
    same function name.
 Brief description:
    A brief description
 Parameters:
    A comma-separated list of zero or more declared types, one for
    each of the arguments expected for this function extension
 Result:
    The declared type of the result for this function extension
 Change Controller:
    See Section 2.3 of [RFC8126].
 Reference:
    A reference document that provides a description of the function
    extension
 The initial entries in this subregistry are listed in Table 19; the
 entries in the "Change Controller" column all have the value "IETF",
 and the entries in the "Reference" column all have the value
 "Section 2.4 of RFC 9535":
  +===============+=====================+============+=============+
  | Function Name | Brief Description   | Parameters | Result      |
  +===============+=====================+============+=============+
  | length        | length of string,   | ValueType  | ValueType   |
  |               | array, or object    |            |             |
  +---------------+---------------------+------------+-------------+
  | count         | size of nodelist    | NodesType  | ValueType   |
  +---------------+---------------------+------------+-------------+
  | match         | regular expression  | ValueType, | LogicalType |
  |               | full match          | ValueType  |             |
  +---------------+---------------------+------------+-------------+
  | search        | regular expression  | ValueType, | LogicalType |
  |               | substring match     | ValueType  |             |
  +---------------+---------------------+------------+-------------+
  | value         | value of the single | NodesType  | ValueType   |
  |               | node in nodelist    |            |             |
  +---------------+---------------------+------------+-------------+
   Table 19: Initial Entries in the Function Extensions Subregistry

4. Security Considerations

 Security considerations for JSONPath can stem from:
  • attack vectors on JSONPath implementations,
  • attack vectors on how JSONPath queries are formed, and
  • the way JSONPath is used in security-relevant mechanisms.

4.1. Attack Vectors on JSONPath Implementations

 Historically, JSONPath has often been implemented by feeding parts of
 the query to an underlying programming language engine, e.g.,
 JavaScript's eval() function.  This approach is well known to lead to
 injection attacks and would require perfect input validation to
 prevent these attacks (see Section 12 of [RFC8259] for similar
 considerations for JSON itself).  Instead, JSONPath implementations
 need to implement the entire syntax of the query without relying on
 the parsers of programming language engines.
 Attacks on availability may attempt to trigger unusually expensive
 runtime performance exhibited by certain implementations in certain
 cases.  (See Section 10 of [RFC8949] for issues in hash-table
 implementations and Section 8 of [RFC9485] for performance issues in
 regular expression implementations.)  Implementers need to be aware
 that good average performance is not sufficient as long as an
 attacker can choose to submit specially crafted JSONPath queries or
 query arguments that trigger surprisingly high, possibly exponential,
 CPU usage or, for example, via a naive recursive implementation of
 the descendant segment, stack overflow.  Implementations need to have
 appropriate resource management to mitigate these attacks.

4.2. Attack Vectors on How JSONPath Queries Are Formed

 JSONPath queries are often not static but formed from variables that
 provide index values, member names, or values to compare with in a
 filter expression.  These variables need to be validated (e.g., only
 allowing specific constructs such as .name to be formed when the
 given values allow that) and translated (e.g., by escaping string
 delimiters).  Not performing these validations and translations
 correctly can lead to unexpected failures, which can lead to
 availability, confidentiality, and integrity breaches, in particular,
 if an adversary has control over the values (e.g., by entering them
 into a web form).  The resulting class of attacks, _injections_
 (e.g., SQL injections), is consistently found among the top causes of
 application security vulnerabilities and requires particular
 attention.

4.3. Attacks on Security Mechanisms That Employ JSONPath

 Where JSONPath is used as a part of a security mechanism, attackers
 can attempt to provoke unexpected or unpredictable behavior or take
 advantage of differences in behavior between JSONPath
 implementations.
 Unexpected or unpredictable behavior can arise from a query argument
 with certain constructs described as unpredictable by [RFC8259].
 Predictable behavior can be expected, except in relation to the
 ordering of objects, for any query argument conforming with
 [RFC7493].
 Other attacks can target the behavior of underlying technologies,
 such as UTF-8 (see Section 10 of [RFC3629]) and the Unicode character
 set.

5. References

5.1. Normative References

 [RFC0020]  Cerf, V., "ASCII format for network interchange", STD 80,
            RFC 20, DOI 10.17487/RFC0020, October 1969,
            <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc20>.
 [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
            Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
            <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
 [RFC3629]  Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO
            10646", STD 63, RFC 3629, DOI 10.17487/RFC3629, November
            2003, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3629>.
 [RFC5234]  Crocker, D., Ed. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
            Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC5234, January 2008,
            <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5234>.
 [RFC6838]  Freed, N., Klensin, J., and T. Hansen, "Media Type
            Specifications and Registration Procedures", BCP 13,
            RFC 6838, DOI 10.17487/RFC6838, January 2013,
            <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6838>.
 [RFC7493]  Bray, T., Ed., "The I-JSON Message Format", RFC 7493,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC7493, March 2015,
            <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7493>.
 [RFC8126]  Cotton, M., Leiba, B., and T. Narten, "Guidelines for
            Writing an IANA Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26,
            RFC 8126, DOI 10.17487/RFC8126, June 2017,
            <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8126>.
 [RFC8174]  Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC
            2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174,
            May 2017, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.
 [RFC8259]  Bray, T., Ed., "The JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Data
            Interchange Format", STD 90, RFC 8259,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC8259, December 2017,
            <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8259>.
 [RFC9485]  Bormann, C. and T. Bray, "I-Regexp: An Interoperable
            Regular Expression Format", RFC 9485,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC9485, October 2023,
            <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9485>.
 [UNICODE]  The Unicode Consortium, "The Unicode® Standard",
            <https://www.unicode.org/versions/latest/>.  At the time
            of writing,
            <https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode15.0.0/
            UnicodeStandard-15.0.pdf>.

5.2. Informative References

 [BOOLEAN-LAWS]
            "Boolean algebra: Laws", December 2023,
            <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/
            index.php?title=Boolean_algebra&oldid=1191386550#Laws>.
 [COMPARISON]
            Burgmer, C., "JSONPath Comparison",
            <https://cburgmer.github.io/json-path-comparison/>.
 [E4X]      ISO, "Information technology - ECMAScript for XML (E4X)
            specification", Withdrawn, ISO/IEC 22537:2006, February
            2006, <https://www.iso.org/standard/41002.html>.  An
            equivalent specification, also withdrawn, is available
            from <https://ecma-international.org/publications-and-
            standards/standards/ecma-357>.
 [ECMA-262] ECMA International, "ECMAScript Language Specification",
            Standard ECMA-262, Third Edition, December 1999,
            <https://www.ecma-international.org/wp-content/uploads/
            ECMA-262_3rd_edition_december_1999.pdf>.
 [JSONPath-orig]
            Gössner, S., "JSONPath - XPath for JSON", February 2007,
            <https://goessner.net/articles/JsonPath/>.
 [RFC6901]  Bryan, P., Ed., Zyp, K., and M. Nottingham, Ed.,
            "JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Pointer", RFC 6901,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC6901, April 2013,
            <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6901>.
 [RFC8949]  Bormann, C. and P. Hoffman, "Concise Binary Object
            Representation (CBOR)", STD 94, RFC 8949,
            DOI 10.17487/RFC8949, December 2020,
            <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8949>.
 [SLICE]    "Slice notation", commit 82f95b4, July 2022,
            <https://github.com/tc39/proposal-slice-notation>.
 [XPath]    Berglund, A., Ed., Chamberlin, D., Ed., Simeon, J., Ed.,
            Robie, J., Ed., Fernandez, M., Ed., Kay, M., Ed., and S.
            Boag, Ed., "XML Path Language (XPath) 2.0 (Second
            Edition)", W3C REC-xpath20-20101214, 14 December 2010,
            <https://www.w3.org/TR/2010/REC-xpath20-20101214/>.

Appendix A. Collected ABNF Grammars

 This appendix collects the ABNF grammar from the ABNF passages used
 throughout the document.
 Figure 2 contains the collected ABNF grammar that defines the syntax
 of a JSONPath query.
 jsonpath-query      = root-identifier segments
 segments            = *(S segment)
 B                   = %x20 /    ; Space
                       %x09 /    ; Horizontal tab
                       %x0A /    ; Line feed or New line
                       %x0D      ; Carriage return
 S                   = *B        ; optional blank space
 root-identifier     = "$"
 selector            = name-selector /
                       wildcard-selector /
                       slice-selector /
                       index-selector /
                       filter-selector
 name-selector       = string-literal
 string-literal      = %x22 *double-quoted %x22 /     ; "string"
                       %x27 *single-quoted %x27       ; 'string'
 double-quoted       = unescaped /
                       %x27      /                    ; '
                       ESC %x22  /                    ; \"
                       ESC escapable
 single-quoted       = unescaped /
                       %x22      /                    ; "
                       ESC %x27  /                    ; \'
                       ESC escapable
 ESC                 = %x5C                           ; \ backslash
 unescaped           = %x20-21 /                      ; see RFC 8259
                          ; omit 0x22 "
                       %x23-26 /
                          ; omit 0x27 '
                       %x28-5B /
                          ; omit 0x5C \
                       %x5D-D7FF /
                          ; skip surrogate code points
                       %xE000-10FFFF
 escapable           = %x62 / ; b BS backspace U+0008
                       %x66 / ; f FF form feed U+000C
                       %x6E / ; n LF line feed U+000A
                       %x72 / ; r CR carriage return U+000D
                       %x74 / ; t HT horizontal tab U+0009
                       "/"  / ; / slash (solidus) U+002F
                       "\"  / ; \ backslash (reverse solidus) U+005C
                       (%x75 hexchar) ;  uXXXX U+XXXX
 hexchar             = non-surrogate /
                       (high-surrogate "\" %x75 low-surrogate)
 non-surrogate       = ((DIGIT / "A"/"B"/"C" / "E"/"F") 3HEXDIG) /
                       ("D" %x30-37 2HEXDIG )
 high-surrogate      = "D" ("8"/"9"/"A"/"B") 2HEXDIG
 low-surrogate       = "D" ("C"/"D"/"E"/"F") 2HEXDIG
 HEXDIG              = DIGIT / "A" / "B" / "C" / "D" / "E" / "F"
 wildcard-selector   = "*"
 index-selector      = int                        ; decimal integer
 int                 = "0" /
                       (["-"] DIGIT1 *DIGIT)      ; - optional
 DIGIT1              = %x31-39                    ; 1-9 non-zero digit
 slice-selector      = [start S] ":" S [end S] [":" [S step ]]
 start               = int       ; included in selection
 end                 = int       ; not included in selection
 step                = int       ; default: 1
 filter-selector     = "?" S logical-expr
 logical-expr        = logical-or-expr
 logical-or-expr     = logical-and-expr *(S "||" S logical-and-expr)
                         ; disjunction
                         ; binds less tightly than conjunction
 logical-and-expr    = basic-expr *(S "&&" S basic-expr)
                         ; conjunction
                         ; binds more tightly than disjunction
 basic-expr          = paren-expr /
                       comparison-expr /
                       test-expr
 paren-expr          = [logical-not-op S] "(" S logical-expr S ")"
                                         ; parenthesized expression
 logical-not-op      = "!"               ; logical NOT operator
 test-expr           = [logical-not-op S]
                       (filter-query / ; existence/non-existence
                        function-expr) ; LogicalType or NodesType
 filter-query        = rel-query / jsonpath-query
 rel-query           = current-node-identifier segments
 current-node-identifier = "@"
 comparison-expr     = comparable S comparison-op S comparable
 literal             = number / string-literal /
                       true / false / null
 comparable          = literal /
                       singular-query / ; singular query value
                       function-expr    ; ValueType
 comparison-op       = "==" / "!=" /
                       "<=" / ">=" /
                       "<"  / ">"
 singular-query      = rel-singular-query / abs-singular-query
 rel-singular-query  = current-node-identifier singular-query-segments
 abs-singular-query  = root-identifier singular-query-segments
 singular-query-segments = *(S (name-segment / index-segment))
 name-segment        = ("[" name-selector "]") /
                       ("." member-name-shorthand)
 index-segment       = "[" index-selector "]"
 number              = (int / "-0") [ frac ] [ exp ] ; decimal number
 frac                = "." 1*DIGIT                  ; decimal fraction
 exp                 = "e" [ "-" / "+" ] 1*DIGIT    ; decimal exponent
 true                = %x74.72.75.65                ; true
 false               = %x66.61.6c.73.65             ; false
 null                = %x6e.75.6c.6c                ; null
 function-name       = function-name-first *function-name-char
 function-name-first = LCALPHA
 function-name-char  = function-name-first / "_" / DIGIT
 LCALPHA             = %x61-7A  ; "a".."z"
 function-expr       = function-name "(" S [function-argument
                          *(S "," S function-argument)] S ")"
 function-argument   = literal /
                       filter-query / ; (includes singular-query)
                       logical-expr /
                       function-expr
 segment             = child-segment / descendant-segment
 child-segment       = bracketed-selection /
                       ("."
                        (wildcard-selector /
                         member-name-shorthand))
 bracketed-selection = "[" S selector *(S "," S selector) S "]"
 member-name-shorthand = name-first *name-char
 name-first          = ALPHA /
                       "_"   /
                       %x80-D7FF /
                          ; skip surrogate code points
                       %xE000-10FFFF
 name-char           = name-first / DIGIT
 DIGIT               = %x30-39              ; 0-9
 ALPHA               = %x41-5A / %x61-7A    ; A-Z / a-z
 descendant-segment  = ".." (bracketed-selection /
                             wildcard-selector /
                             member-name-shorthand)
              Figure 2: Collected ABNF of JSONPath Queries
 Figure 3 contains the collected ABNF grammar that defines the syntax
 of a JSONPath Normalized Path while also using the rules root-
 identifier, ESC, DIGIT, and DIGIT1 from Figure 2.
 normalized-path      = root-identifier *(normal-index-segment)
 normal-index-segment = "[" normal-selector "]"
 normal-selector      = normal-name-selector / normal-index-selector
 normal-name-selector = %x27 *normal-single-quoted %x27 ; 'string'
 normal-single-quoted = normal-unescaped /
                        ESC normal-escapable
 normal-unescaped     =    ; omit %x0-1F control codes
                        %x20-26 /
                           ; omit 0x27 '
                        %x28-5B /
                           ; omit 0x5C \
                        %x5D-D7FF /
                           ; skip surrogate code points
                        %xE000-10FFFF
 normal-escapable     = %x62 / ; b BS backspace U+0008
                        %x66 / ; f FF form feed U+000C
                        %x6E / ; n LF line feed U+000A
                        %x72 / ; r CR carriage return U+000D
                        %x74 / ; t HT horizontal tab U+0009
                        "'" /  ; ' apostrophe U+0027
                        "\" /  ; \ backslash (reverse solidus) U+005C
                        (%x75 normal-hexchar)
                                        ; certain values u00xx U+00XX
 normal-hexchar       = "0" "0"
                        (
                           ("0" %x30-37) / ; "00"-"07"
                              ; omit U+0008-U+000A BS HT LF
                           ("0" %x62) /    ; "0b"
                              ; omit U+000C-U+000D FF CR
                           ("0" %x65-66) / ; "0e"-"0f"
                           ("1" normal-HEXDIG)
                        )
 normal-HEXDIG        = DIGIT / %x61-66    ; "0"-"9", "a"-"f"
 normal-index-selector = "0" / (DIGIT1 *DIGIT)
                         ; non-negative decimal integer
         Figure 3: Collected ABNF of JSONPath Normalized Paths

Appendix B. Inspired by XPath

 This appendix is informative.
 At the time JSONPath was invented, XML was noted for the availability
 of powerful tools to analyze, transform, and selectively extract data
 from XML documents.  [XPath] is one of these tools.
 In 2007, the need for something solving the same class of problems
 for the emerging JSON community became apparent, specifically for:
  • finding data interactively and extracting them out of JSON values

[RFC8259] without special scripting and

  • specifying the relevant parts of the JSON data in a request by a

client, so the server can reduce the amount of data in its

    response, minimizing bandwidth usage.
 (Note: XPath has evolved since 2007, and recent versions even
 nominally support operating inside JSON values.  This appendix only
 discusses the more widely used version of XPath that was available in
 2007.)
 JSONPath picks up the overall feeling of XPath but maps the concepts
 to syntax (and partially semantics) that would be familiar to someone
 using JSON in a dynamic language.
 For example, in popular dynamic programming languages such as
 JavaScript, Python, and PHP, the semantics of the XPath expression:
 /store/book[1]/title
 can be realized in the expression:
 x.store.book[0].title
 or in bracket notation:
 x['store']['book'][0]['title']
 with the variable x holding the query argument.
 The JSONPath language was designed to:
  • be naturally based on those language characteristics,
  • cover only the most essential parts of XPath 1.0,
  • be lightweight in code size and memory consumption, and
  • be runtime efficient.

B.1. JSONPath and XPath

 JSONPath expressions apply to JSON values in the same way as XPath
 expressions are used in combination with an XML document.  JSONPath
 uses $ to refer to the root node of the query argument, similar to
 XPath's / at the front.
 JSONPath expressions move further down the hierarchy using _dot
 notation_ ($.store.book[0].title) or the _bracket notation_
 ($['store']['book'][0]['title']); both replace XPath's / within query
 expressions, where _dot notation_ serves as a lightweight but limited
 syntax while _bracket notation_ is a heavyweight but more general
 syntax.
 Both JSONPath and XPath use * for a wildcard.  JSONPath's descendant
 segment notation, starting with .., borrowed from [E4X], is similar
 to XPath's //. The array slicing construct [start:end:step] is unique
 to JSONPath, inspired by [SLICE] from ECMASCRIPT 4.
 Filter expressions are supported via the syntax ?<logical-expr> as
 in:
 $.store.book[?@.price < 10].title
 Table 20 extends Table 1 by providing a comparison with similar XPath
 concepts.
  +==========+==================+===================================+
  | XPath    | JSONPath         | Description                       |
  +==========+==================+===================================+
  | /        | $                | the root XML element              |
  +----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+
  | .        | @                | the current XML element           |
  +----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+
  | /        | . or []          | child operator                    |
  +----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+
  | ..       | n/a              | parent operator                   |
  +----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+
  | //       | ..name,          | descendants (JSONPath borrows     |
  |          | ..[index], ..*,  | this syntax from E4X)             |
  |          | or ..[*]         |                                   |
  +----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+
  | *        | *                | wildcard: All XML elements        |
  |          |                  | regardless of their names         |
  +----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+
  | @        | n/a              | attribute access: JSON values do  |
  |          |                  | not have attributes               |
  +----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+
  | []       | []               | subscript operator used to        |
  |          |                  | iterate over XML element          |
  |          |                  | collections and for predicates    |
  +----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+
  | |        | [,]              | Union operator (results in a      |
  |          |                  | combination of node sets); called |
  |          |                  | list operator in JSONPath, allows |
  |          |                  | combining member names, array     |
  |          |                  | indices, and slices               |
  +----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+
  | n/a      | [start:end:step] | array slice operator borrowed     |
  |          |                  | from ES4                          |
  +----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+
  | []       | ?                | applies a filter (script)         |
  |          |                  | expression                        |
  +----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+
  | seamless | n/a              | expression engine                 |
  +----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+
  | ()       | n/a              | grouping                          |
  +----------+------------------+-----------------------------------+
              Table 20: XPath Syntax Compared to JSONPath
 For further illustration, Table 21 shows some XPath expressions and
 their JSONPath equivalents.
 +=======================+========================+==================+
 | XPath                 | JSONPath               | Result           |
 +=======================+========================+==================+
 | /store/book/author    | $.store.book[*].author | the authors      |
 |                       |                        | of all books     |
 |                       |                        | in the store     |
 +-----------------------+------------------------+------------------+
 | //author              | $..author              | all authors      |
 +-----------------------+------------------------+------------------+
 | /store/*              | $.store.*              | all things in    |
 |                       |                        | store, which     |
 |                       |                        | are some         |
 |                       |                        | books and a      |
 |                       |                        | red bicycle      |
 +-----------------------+------------------------+------------------+
 | /store//price         | $.store..price         | the prices of    |
 |                       |                        | everything in    |
 |                       |                        | the store        |
 +-----------------------+------------------------+------------------+
 | //book[3]             | $..book[2]             | the third        |
 |                       |                        | book             |
 +-----------------------+------------------------+------------------+
 | //book[last()]        | $..book[-1]            | the last book    |
 |                       |                        | in order         |
 +-----------------------+------------------------+------------------+
 | //book[position()<3]  | $..book[0,1]           | the first two    |
 |                       | $..book[:2]            | books            |
 +-----------------------+------------------------+------------------+
 | //book[isbn]          | $..book[?@.isbn]       | filter all       |
 |                       |                        | books with an    |
 |                       |                        | ISBN number      |
 +-----------------------+------------------------+------------------+
 | //book[price<10]      | $..book[?@.price<10]   | filter all       |
 |                       |                        | books cheaper    |
 |                       |                        | than 10          |
 +-----------------------+------------------------+------------------+
 | //*                   | $..*                   | all elements     |
 |                       |                        | in an XML        |
 |                       |                        | document; all    |
 |                       |                        | member values    |
 |                       |                        | and array        |
 |                       |                        | elements         |
 |                       |                        | contained in     |
 |                       |                        | input value      |
 +-----------------------+------------------------+------------------+
   Table 21: Example XPath Expressions and Their JSONPath Equivalents
 XPath has a lot more functionality (location paths in unabbreviated
 syntax, operators, and functions) than listed in this comparison.
 Moreover, there are significant differences in how the subscript
 operator works in XPath and JSONPath:
  • Square brackets in XPath expressions always operate on the _node

set_ resulting from the previous path fragment. Indices always

    start at 1.
  • With JSONPath, square brackets operate on each of the nodes in the

_nodelist_ resulting from the previous query segment. Array

    indices always start at 0.

Appendix C. JSON Pointer

 This appendix is informative.
 In relation to JSON Pointer [RFC6901], JSONPath is not intended as a
 replacement but as a more powerful companion.  The purposes of the
 two standards are different.
 JSON Pointer is for identifying a single value within a JSON value
 whose structure is known.
 JSONPath can identify a single value within a JSON value, for
 example, by using a Normalized Path.  But JSONPath is also a query
 syntax that can be used to search for and extract multiple values
 from JSON values whose structure is known only in a general way.
 A Normalized JSONPath can be converted into a JSON Pointer by
 converting the syntax, without knowledge of any JSON value.  The
 inverse is not generally true, i.e., a numeric reference token (path
 component) in a JSON Pointer may identify a member value of an object
 or an element of an array.  For conversion to a JSONPath query,
 knowledge of the structure of the JSON value is needed to distinguish
 these cases.

Acknowledgements

 This document is based on Stefan Gössner's original online article
 defining JSONPath [JSONPath-orig].
 The books example was taken from course material that Bielefeld
 University, Germany used in 2002.
 This work is indebted to Christoph Burgmer for the superb JSONPath
 comparison project [COMPARISON] that details the behavior of over
 forty JSONPath implementations applied to numerous queries.

Contributors

 Marko Mikulicic
 InfluxData, Inc.
 Pisa
 Italy
 Email: mmikulicic@gmail.com
 Edward Surov
 TheSoul Publishing Ltd.
 Limassol
 Cyprus
 Email: esurov.tsp@gmail.com
 Greg Dennis
 Auckland
 New Zealand
 Email: gregsdennis@yahoo.com
 URI:   https://github.com/gregsdennis

Authors' Addresses

 Stefan Gössner (editor)
 Fachhochschule Dortmund
 Sonnenstraße 96
 D-44139 Dortmund
 Germany
 Email: stefan.goessner@fh-dortmund.de
 Glyn Normington (editor)
 Winchester
 United Kingdom
 Email: glyn.normington@gmail.com
 Carsten Bormann (editor)
 Universität Bremen TZI
 Postfach 330440
 D-28359 Bremen
 Germany
 Phone: +49-421-218-63921
 Email: cabo@tzi.org
/home/gen.uk/domains/wiki.gen.uk/public_html/data/pages/rfc/rfc9535.txt · Last modified: 2024/02/22 04:58 by 127.0.0.1

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