tsv2json

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# tsv2json -- Converts TSV lines into JSON lines
#
# $ tsv2json KEY_FOR_EACH_COLUMN... <input.tsv >output.json
# The KEY_FOR_EACH_COLUMN defines the mapping between column position to the
# key for the corresponding JSON object.
##
set -euo pipefail

# from given keys for each column, compose a jq program that construct such object
jqObjConstructor=
columnIndex=0
for keyForColumn; do
    jqObjConstructor+=", \"$keyForColumn\": .[$columnIndex]"
    let ++columnIndex
done
jqObjConstructor="{${jqObjConstructor#, }}"

# run jq that parses each TSV line and construct a corresponding JSON object
exec jq -R -c 'split("\t") | map(
    if . == "\\N" then null
    else
        # handle TSV escape sequences
        gsub("\\\\n"  ; "\n") |
        gsub("\\\\t"  ; "\t") |
        gsub("\\\\r"  ; "\r") |
        gsub("\\\\b"  ; "\b") |
        gsub("\\\\(.)"; "$1")
    end
) | '"$jqObjConstructor"