Any reason to start a JsonPath without the "$" dollar sign?

Question

In JsonPath, I've seen the "$" sign described as the symbol that "refers to the root object or element".

Example:

JsonPath.read(json, "$.store.book[*].author");

Question: is there any reason not to start the path with "$"?

In Jayway, you can omit the "$." at the start of a path and get the same result.

But, is there any reason to do this?

Maybe create an issue about it in https://github.com/json-path/JsonPath/issues — Ori Marko, Dec 25 '19 at 12:33

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 25 '19 at 10:59

In Smartbear.com's JSON documentation they point out:

The leading $ represents the root object or array and can be omitted. For example, $.foo.bar and foo.bar are the same, and so are $[0].status and [0].status.

The full document can be viewed here.

So looks like the $ sign is simply there for style, which leads to the question of why the JSONPath creators implemented it.

Any reason to start a JsonPath without the "$" dollar sign?

1 Answers1