when searching for text, get paths in dotted notation - jq

Question

I'm pretty new to jq.
For the JSON at the bottom of this post, I can do
jq '[paths as $path | select(getpath($path) == "Standard Generalized Markup Language") | $path ]' json.json
and get
[
[
"glossary",
"GlossDiv",
"GlossList",
"GlossEntry",
"GlossTerm"
]
]
How can I modify that query so that I get the paths like this?
glossary.GlossDiv.GlossList.GlossEntry.GlossTerm
json.json
{
"glossary": {
"title": "example glossary",
"GlossDiv": {
"title": "S",
"GlossList": {
"GlossEntry": {
"ID": "SGML",
"SortAs": "SGML",
"GlossTerm": "Standard Generalized Markup Language",
"Acronym": "SGML",
"Abbrev": "ISO 8879:1986",
"GlossDef": {
"para": "A meta-markup language, used to create markup languages such as DocBook.",
"GlossSeeAlso": ["GML", "XML"]
},
"GlossSee": "markup"
}
}
}
}
}

Answer 1

join the path array items using the dot as delimiter.
Following your approach using paths and getpath:
[
paths as $path
| select(getpath($path) == "Standard Generalized Markup Language")
| $path | join(".")
]
Demo
Using .., strings and path:
[
path(.. | select(strings == "Standard Generalized Markup Language"))
| join(".")
]
Demo
Using tostream:
[
tostream | select(.[1] == "Standard Generalized Markup Language")[0]
| join(".")
]
Demo
[
"glossary.GlossDiv.GlossList.GlossEntry.GlossTerm"
]
If you want a stream (instead of an array) of strings, omit the top-level brackets altogether.

Answer 2

I've written a Bash script call jqg that will flatten JSON files and filter the results producing valid JSON output; it does pretty much what you want in a generic fashion.
Running the script with your JSON and with "Standard Generalized Markup Language" as the search string yields the following:
$ jqg "Standard Generalized Markup Language" /tmp/json.json
{
"glossary.GlossDiv.GlossList.GlossEntry.GlossTerm": "Standard Generalized Markup Language"
}
You can opt to only give the path elements and not the value:
$ jqg -K "Standard Generalized Markup Language" /tmp/json.json
[
"glossary.GlossDiv.GlossList.GlossEntry.GlossTerm"
]
and if you want the path as a string and not as full JSON, you can do that, too:
$ jqg -r -K "Standard Generalized Markup Language" /tmp/json.json
glossary.GlossDiv.GlossList.GlossEntry.GlossTerm
Note: I am the author of jqg.