Printing JSON in the Shell

Printing json might seem straightforward at first, just:

$ echo '{"name": "jes", "sign": "aquarius"}'
# {"name": "jes", "sign": "aquarius"}

but inevitably, variables show up:

$ echo '{"name": "$name", "sign": "$sign"}'
# {"name": "$name", "sign": "$sign"} <-- this output is very broken

We can instead use printf! printf offers several advantages over echo:

• many languages (C, Go) have a printf equivalent, so it feels familiar
• printf behavior does not differ across systems (it is posix compliant)
• printf handles escape sequences (printf "hello\nworld\n")
• printf can trivially handle json

Printing the same json text using printf:

$ printf '{"name": "%s", "sign": "%s"}' "$name" "$sign"
# {"name": "jes", "sign": "aquarius"}

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