Remove parent elements with certain key-value pairs using JQ - json

Question

I need to remove elements from a json file based on certain key values. Here is the file I am trying to process.
{
"element1": "Test Element 1",
"element2": {
"tags": "internal",
"data": {
"data1": "Test Data 1",
"data2": "Test Data 2"
}
},
"element3": {
"function1": {
"tags": [
"new",
"internal"
]
},
"data3": "Test Data 3",
"data4": "Test Data 4"
},
"element4": {
"function2": {
"tags": "new"
},
"data5": "Test Data 5"
}
}
I want to remove all elements that have a "tag" with value "internal". So the result should look like this:
{
"element1": "Test Element 1",
"element4": {
"function2": {
"tags": "new"
},
"data5": "Test Data 5"
}
}
I tried various approaches but I just don't get it done using jq. Any ideas? Thanks.
Just to add some more complexity. Let's assume the json is:
{
"element1": "Test Element 1",
"element2": {
"tags": "internal",
"data": {
"data1": "Test Data 1",
"data2": "Test Data 2"
}
},
"element3": {
"function1": {
"tags": [
"new",
"internal"
]
},
"data3": "Test Data 3",
"data4": "Test Data 4"
},
"element4": {
"function2": {
"tags": "new"
},
"data5": "Test Data 5"
},
"structure1" : {
"substructure1": {
"element5": "Test Element 5",
"element6": {
"tags": "internal",
"data6": "Test Data 6"
}
}
}
}
and I want to get
{
"element1": "Test Element 1",
"element4": {
"function2": {
"tags": "new"
},
"data5": "Test Data 5"
},
"structure1" : {
"substructure1": {
"element5": "Test Element 5",
}
}
}

Answer 1

Not easy, finding elements which have a tags key somewhere whose value is either the string internal, or an array of which an element is the string internal in a reliable way is only possible with a complex boolean expression as below.
Once found, deleting them can be done using the del built-in.
del(.[] | first(select(recurse
| objects
| has("tags") and (.tags
| . == "internal" or (
type == "array" and index("internal")
)
)
)))
Online demo

Answer 2

I think I figured out how to also solve the more complex case. I am now running:
walk(if type == "object" and has("tags") and (.tags | . == "internal" or (type == "array" and index("internal"))) then del(.) else . end) | delpaths([paths as $path | select(getpath($path) == null) | $path])
This will remove all elements that contain 'internal' as 'tag'.

Answer 3

The following solution is written with a helper function for clarity. The helper function uses any for efficiency and is defined so as to add a dash of generality.
To understand the solution, it will be helpful to know about with_entries and the infix // operator, both of which are explained in the jq manual.
# Does the incoming JSON value contain an object which has a .tags
# value that is equal to $value or to an array containing $value ?
def hasTag($value):
any(.. | select(type=="object") | .tags;
. == $value or (type == "array" and index($value)));
Assuming the top-level JSON entity is a JSON object, we can now simply write:
with_entries( select( .value | hasTag("internal") | not) )