Remove blank strings from array with jq?

Question

How does one remove blank string items from an array in jq?

This is my best guess, but it doesn't appear to work:

Attempt

echo '["bob","","tim",""]' | jq '[ . [] | if length > 0 then . end ]'

Desired output:

["bob", "tim"]

Error:

. [] | if length > 0 then . end                            
jq: error: Possibly unterminated 'if' statement at <top-level>, line 1:
. [] | if length > 0 then . end       
jq: 2 compile errors

Answer 1

Adding "else empty" gets the right result

jq '[ .[] | if length > 0 then . else empty end ]'

Consider using select instead.

jq '[ .[] | select(length > 0) ]'

And since map(x) is equivalent to [.[] | x], we can do this.

jq 'map(select(length > 0))'