How to parse asterisk in json file as string via jq - json

Question

Here is a json file named test.json for testing
{
"name": "Google",
"location": {
"street": "1600 Amphitheatre Parkway",
"city": "Mountain View",
"state": "California",
"country": "US"
},
"employees": [
{
"name": "Michael",
"division": "Engineering"
},
{
"name": "Laura",
"division": "HR"
},
{
"name": "Elise",
"division": "Marketing * test"
}
]
}
if I use the jq code to parser it like below:
cat test.json | jq -r '.employees[2].division'
it will work well and give a correct result:
Marketing * test
but I use $(), the bad thing will happen!
echo $(cat test.json | jq -r '.employees[2].division')
the result will list all file names under current folder! like:
my1.json my2.json test.json test ...
I guess it $() run asterisk * as a shell script, but a string.
so how to make asterisk (*) in json file just as a string when I am using jq ?. I am using Google cloud platform and Ubuntu 17.10

Answer 1

Always use double-quotes around command-substitution to avoid * to be treated literally. The * is a special character in shell that is a wildcard entry that expands to all the files available in the current working directory. You need to quote it to deprive of its special meaning (Refer GNU bash man page under Parameters section).
Also jq can process the file directly, you can avoid useless cat usage.
result="$(jq -r '.employees[2].division' < test.json)"
echo "$result"
should produce the result as expected.