How to remove ".": {}, from JSON?

[patrickdung]

The program that generate the json produce something like this:
(extracted)

                          "k:{\"name\":\"HOSTNAME\"}": {
                            ".": {},
                            "f:name": {},
                            "f:valueFrom": {
                              ".": {},
                              "f:fieldRef": {}
                            }
                          },

I would like to remove these ".": {},

How to write it in VRL in Vector?
new_message = replace(string!(.message), "\".\": {},", "")
but it complain about the period

[jszwedko]

I would recommend parsing the message as JSON and then removing the field rather than doing string replacement as this is likely to be much more brittle. See an example here:

https://playground.vrl.dev/?state=eyJwcm9ncmFtIjoiLiA9IHBhcnNlX2pzb24hKC5tZXNzYWdlKVxuZGVsKC5cIms6e1xcXCJuYW1lXFxcIjpcXFwiSE9TVE5BTUVcXFwifVwiLlwiLlwiKSIsImV2ZW50Ijp7Im1lc3NhZ2UiOiJ7XCJrOntcXFwibmFtZVxcXCI6XFxcIkhPU1ROQU1FXFxcIn1cIjp7XCIuXCI6e30sXCJmOm5hbWVcIjp7fSxcImY6dmFsdWVGcm9tXCI6e1wiLlwiOnt9LFwiZjpmaWVsZFJlZlwiOnt9fX19In0sImlzX2pzb25sIjpmYWxzZSwiZXJyb3IiOm51bGx9

[patrickdung]

Thanks for reply..

But how about the source JSON has multiple ".": {},?
The text "k:{\"name\":\"HOSTNAME\"}": { could be any text and the ".": {}, comes after it.

[jszwedko]

I think I'd need to see another few examples since I'm not sure I'm following.