Pass bash variable (string) as jq argument to walk JSON object - json

Question

This is seemingly a very basic question. I am new to JSON, so I am prepared for the incoming facepalm.
I have the following JSON file (test-app-1.json):
"application.name": "test-app-1",
"environments": {
"development": [
"server1"
],
"stage": [
"server2",
"server3"
],
"production": [
"server4",
"server5"
]
}
The intent is to use this as a configuration file and reference for input validation.
I am using bash 3.2 and will be using jq 1.4 (not the latest) to read the JSON.
The problem:
I need to return all values in the specified JSON array based on an argument.
Example: (how the documentation and other resources show that it should work)
APPLICATION_ENVIRONMENT="developement"
jq --arg appenv "$APPLICATION_ENVIRONMENT" '.environments."$env[]"' test-app-1.json
If executed, this returns null. This should return server1.
Obviously, if I specify text explicitly matching the JSON arrays under environment, it works just fine:
jq 'environments.development[]' test-app-1.json returns: server1.
Limitations: I am stuck to jq 1.4 for this project. I have tried the same actions in 1.5 on a different machine with the same null results.
What am I doing wrong here?
jq documentation: https://stedolan.github.io/jq/manual/

Answer 1

You have three issues - two typos and one jq filter usage issue:
set APPLICATION_ENVIRONMENT to development instead of developement
use variable name consistently: if you define appenv, use $appenv, not $env
address with .environments[$appenv]
When fixed, looks like this:
$ APPLICATION_ENVIRONMENT="development"
$ jq --arg appenv "$APPLICATION_ENVIRONMENT" '.environments[$appenv][]' test-app-1.json
"server1"