Ask HN: How do you view large JSON files?

#1

Post by chuchuva » Sat, Jul 09, 2016, 10:24 PM UTC

I use JSON Viewer [1] to view data in JSON format but it freezes on files larger than 1 MB. I want to be able to easily collapse and expand elements to understand the structure of the data.

[1] https://jsonviewer.codeplex.com/

Re: Ask HN: How do you view large JSON files?

#2

Post by YuriNiyazov » Sat, Jul 09, 2016, 11:02 PM UTC

jq

Re: Ask HN: How do you view large JSON files?

#3

Post by mtmail » Sat, Jul 09, 2016, 11:04 PM UTC

There's addons/extension for Chrome and Firefox. Both also called JSON Viewer (different author). For really large files I use a command-line tool plus grep and awk though https://stedolan.github.io/jq/

Re: Ask HN: How do you view large JSON files?

#4

Post by mtsmithhn » Sat, Jul 09, 2016, 11:05 PM UTC

You could try the JSONView chrome extension.

Re: Ask HN: How do you view large JSON files?

#5

Post by patrickmn » Sat, Jul 09, 2016, 11:08 PM UTC

mtsmithhn wrote: post #4

You could try the JSONView chrome extension.

Link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jsonview/chklaanhf...

Re: Ask HN: How do you view large JSON files?

#6

Post by chuchuva » Sat, Jul 09, 2016, 11:11 PM UTC

mtsmithhn wrote: post #4

You could try the JSONView chrome extension.

I'm already using JSONView Chrome extension and it's great but it doesn't work with local files. Nor can I copy and paste JSON.

Re: Ask HN: How do you view large JSON files?

#7

Post by rickyc091 » Sat, Jul 09, 2016, 11:15 PM UTC

mtmail wrote: post #3

There's addons/extension for Chrome and Firefox. Both also called JSON Viewer (different author). For really large files I use a command-line tool plus grep and awk though https://stedolan.github.io/jq/

Yep, all that above + `sed`.

Re: Ask HN: How do you view large JSON files?

#8

Post by jijji » Sat, Jul 09, 2016, 11:20 PM UTC

print_r(json_decode(file_get_contents("http://url.com/"), TRUE));

Re: Ask HN: How do you view large JSON files?

#9

Post by chuchuva » Sat, Jul 09, 2016, 11:22 PM UTC

jijji wrote: post #8

print_r(json_decode(file_get_contents(" http://url.com/" ), TRUE));

What about collapsing/expanding elements interactively?

Re: Ask HN: How do you view large JSON files?

#10

Post by chuchuva » Sat, Jul 09, 2016, 11:26 PM UTC

mtmail wrote: post #3

There's addons/extension for Chrome and Firefox. Both also called JSON Viewer (different author). For really large files I use a command-line tool plus grep and awk though https://stedolan.github.io/jq/

jq looks promising but I still need to view the JSON file first. I want to be able to somehow get the general understanding of the structure very quickly and interactively. The tree control works very well for that. JSON Viewer is almost perfect but it doesn't work with local files.