how to parse a JSON String with jq (or other alternatives)?
<p>I'm trying to get <code>jq</code> to parse a JSON structure like:</p>

<pre><code>{
  "a" : 1,
  "b" : 2,
  "c" : "{\"id\":\"9ee ...\",\"parent\":\"abc...\"}\n"
}
</code></pre>

<p>That is, an element in the JSON is a string with escaped json.</p>

<p>So, I have something along the lines of
<code>$ jq [.c] myFile.json | jq [.id]</code></p>

<p>But that crashes with <code>jq: error: Cannot index string with string</code></p>

<p>This is because the output of .c is a string, not more JSON.
How do I get jq to parse this string?</p>

<p>My initial solution is to use sed to replace all the escape chars (<code>\":\"</code>, <code>\",\"</code> and <code>\"</code>) but that's messy, I assume there's a way built into <code>jq</code> to do this?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>edit:
Also, the jq version available here is:</p>

<pre><code>$ jq --version
jq version 1.3
</code></pre>

<p>I guess I could update it if required.</p>