JSONPath Wildcard Operator (*)

The Wildcard Operator in JSONPath

The asterisk * is a wildcard that matches all members of an object or all elements of an array at the current level. It is one of the most powerful operators for exploring JSON structures.

Syntax

$.store.*          // all direct children of store
$.store.books[*]   // all elements in the books array

With Objects

Given:

{
  "store": {
    "name": "TechBooks",
    "location": "Online",
    "rating": 4.8
  }
}

$.store.* returns ["TechBooks", "Online", 4.8] — all property values regardless of their names.

With Arrays

Given:

{
  "colors": ["red", "green", "blue"]
}

$.colors[*] returns ["red", "green", "blue"] — every element in the array.

Nested Wildcard

You can chain wildcards to access properties across multiple levels:

$.users[*].name      // name of every user
$.data[*].tags[*]    // every tag across all data entries

Wildcard vs. Recursive Descent

Operator	Symbol	Scope
Wildcard	*	Current level only
Recursive descent	..	All levels (deep)

The wildcard operates at a single depth level, so $.store.* only returns direct children of store, not nested grandchildren. Use recursive descent (..) when you need to search through the entire tree.

Performance Note

Wildcards on large arrays are efficient because the evaluator simply iterates over the current level. However, combining wildcards with filters on huge datasets may increase processing time.