Category: SMC

Posts in this tag are syndicated to SQL Masters Consulting

OPENJSON and CROSS APPLY

OPENJSON is pretty central to manipulating JSON documents in T-SQL.

As we’ve seen, we can use a default schema that will return metadata about the JSON document or we can use an explicit schema where we supply a WITH clause and a PATH to the data that we want.

So far, in our examples we have either used the default schema or an explicit schema – but we have not mixed the two.

Indeed if you try this in a simple query you’ll find it is not possible without the use of APPLY operator.

OPENJSON is actually a table-valued function that parses JSON – either into an explicit schema (that we provide) or the default schema.

We can mix both the default and explicit schema by using CROSS APPLY

Like so

DECLARE @json NVARCHAR(MAX) =
N'
{
    "Configuration Property": {
      "Configuration name": "recovery interval (min)",
      "Value": 0,
      "minimum": 0,
      "maximum": 32767,
      "value_in_use": 0,
      "description": "Maximum recovery interval in minutes",
      "is_dynamic": true,
      "is_advanced": true
    }
}
';
 
SELECT 
	 DS.[key]
	,DS.[value]
	,DS.[type]
	,ES.[Configuration name]
	,ES.[Value]
	,ES.[minimum]
	,ES.[maximum]
	,ES.[value_in_use]
	,ES.[description]
	,ES.[is_dynamic]
	,ES.[is_advanced] 
FROM  
     OPENJSON(@json)  AS DS
CROSS APPLY
     OPENJSON(DS.[value])
WITH
(
	 [Configuration name]  NVARCHAR(35)
	,[Value]               NVARCHAR(35)
	,[minimum]             NVARCHAR(35)
	,[maximum]             NVARCHAR(35)
	,[value_in_use]        NVARCHAR(35)
	,[description]         NVARCHAR(35)
	,[is_dynamic]          NVARCHAR(35)
	,[is_advanced]         NVARCHAR(35)
) AS ES
GO

This technique can come in extremely handy when attempting to drill down into sub arrays and objects contained in a JSON document.

Notice also that different aliasing (of the default and explicit schema) has allowed us to request data from both the default schema and the explicit schema. This has enabled us to get to the element that is named value – as this name appears in both the default and explicit schema names and thus requires an alias.

I hope this has helped on your SQL Server JSON journey. We’ll see more real soon.

Have a great day

Cheers

Marty

OPENJSON and an Alias

Using Aliases in T-SQL is very common.

We can alias both Tables (FROM clause) and Columns (SELECT clause) and some other things too. It’s all pretty fundamental to writing good T-SQL queries.

Here’s an example

SELECT
	 dbs.collation_name
	,dbs.database_id AS [DatabaseID]
	,[IsReadOnly] = dbs.is_read_only
FROM 
	sys.databases AS dbs
JOIN
	sys.master_files MF
ON 
	dbs.database_id = MF.database_id
WHERE
	dbs.[name] = 'master';
GO

Note that we can use different styles, however, I recommend you standardise however you want to do this.

Anyway, the point of this post if to outline how aliasing is done when using the default and explicit JSON schemas in our T-SQL Queries

Here is an example of aliasing with the default schema

DECLARE @json NVARCHAR(MAX) =
N'
{
    "Configuration Property": {
      "Configuration name": "recovery interval (min)",
      "Value": 0,
      "minimum": 0,
      "maximum": 32767,
      "value_in_use": 0,
      "description": "Maximum recovery interval in minutes",
      "is_dynamic": true,
      "is_advanced": true
    }
}
';
 
SELECT 
      DS.[key]
	 ,DS.[value]
	 ,DS.[type]
FROM  
     OPENJSON(@json, '$."Configuration Property"')  AS DS;
GO

There’s nothing particularly unusual here.

The slightly unusual part may appear when aliasing with an explicit schema.

Here’s an example

DECLARE @json NVARCHAR(MAX) =
N'
{
    "Configuration Property": {
      "Configuration name": "recovery interval (min)",
      "Value": 0,
      "minimum": 0,
      "maximum": 32767,
      "value_in_use": 0,
      "description": "Maximum recovery interval in minutes",
      "is_dynamic": true,
      "is_advanced": true
    }
}
';
 
SELECT 
     ES.[Configuration name] 
    ,ES.[Value]
    ,ES.[minimum]  
    ,ES.[maximum]
    ,ES.[value_in_use]
    ,ES.[description]
    ,ES.[is_dynamic]
    ,ES.[is_advanced] 
FROM  
     OPENJSON(@json, '$."Configuration Property"')  
WITH 
( 
     [Configuration name] NVARCHAR(35) 
    ,[Value]              NVARCHAR(100)   
    ,[minimum]            NVARCHAR(100)  
    ,[maximum]            NVARCHAR(100)  
    ,[value_in_use]       NVARCHAR(100) 
    ,[description]        NVARCHAR(100)
    ,[is_dynamic]         BIT
    ,[is_advanced]        BIT
) AS ES;

Note that the alias for an explicit schema come after the WITH clause.

If we try to put the alias directly after the line

OPENJSON(@json, '$."Configuration Property"')

Then we will receive an error.

While this may seem trivial it will become very useful when mixing the default schema and an explicit schema.

I hope this has helped on your SQL Server JSON journey. We’ll see more real soon.

Have a great day

Cheers

Marty

OPENJSON : Getting to the data, and the PATH – PART I

Recently we reviewed FOR JSON PATH. That was used for shaping tabular data (data that comes directly from a SQL table) into a JSON document.

The PATH we are talking about here is used with OPENJSON to get to the data that is contained in the JSON document.

We’ve seen an example of OPENJSON and reading data with an explicit schema.

SELECT
     [configuration_id]
    ,[Configuration name] 
    ,[Value]          = TRY_CONVERT(sql_variant  , [Value]) 
    ,[minimum]        = TRY_CONVERT(sql_variant  , [minimum]) 
    ,[maximum]        = TRY_CONVERT(sql_variant  , [maximum]) 
    ,[value_in_use]   = TRY_CONVERT(sql_variant  , [value_in_use]) 
    ,[description]    = TRY_CONVERT(sql_variant  , [description]) 
    ,[is_dynamic]
    ,[is_advanced]
FROM
    OPENJSON
(
'
  {
    "configuration_id": 101,
    "Configuration name": "recovery interval (min)",
    "Value": 0,
    "minimum": 0,
    "maximum": 32767,
    "value_in_use": 0,
    "description": "Maximum recovery interval in minutes",
    "is_dynamic": true,
    "is_advanced": true
  }
'
)
WITH
(
     [configuration_id]     INT 
    ,[Configuration name]   NVARCHAR(35)
    ,[Value]                NVARCHAR(200)
    ,[minimum]              NVARCHAR(200)
    ,[maximum]              NVARCHAR(200)
    ,[value_in_use]         NVARCHAR(200)
    ,[description]          NVARCHAR(200)
    ,[is_dynamic]           BIT
    ,[is_advanced]          BIT
);
GO

Turns out that in this example, the data is right at the top level of the document.

 {
    "configuration_id": 101,
    "Configuration name": "recovery interval (min)",
    "Value": 0,
    "minimum": 0,
    "maximum": 32767,
    "value_in_use": 0,
    "description": "Maximum recovery interval in minutes",
    "is_dynamic": true,
    "is_advanced": true
  }

and so we didn’t need to explicitly state the PATH – however we still could have. And here it is.

SELECT
     [configuration_id]
    ,[Configuration name] 
    ,[Value]          = TRY_CONVERT(sql_variant  , [Value]) 
    ,[minimum]        = TRY_CONVERT(sql_variant  , [minimum]) 
    ,[maximum]        = TRY_CONVERT(sql_variant  , [maximum]) 
    ,[value_in_use]   = TRY_CONVERT(sql_variant  , [value_in_use]) 
    ,[description]    = TRY_CONVERT(sql_variant  , [description]) 
    ,[is_dynamic]
    ,[is_advanced]
FROM
    OPENJSON
(
'
  {
    "configuration_id": 101,
    "Configuration name": "recovery interval (min)",
    "Value": 0,
    "minimum": 0,
    "maximum": 32767,
    "value_in_use": 0,
    "description": "Maximum recovery interval in minutes",
    "is_dynamic": true,
    "is_advanced": true
  }
'
, '$')
WITH
(
     [configuration_id]     INT 
    ,[Configuration name]   NVARCHAR(35)
    ,[Value]                NVARCHAR(200)
    ,[minimum]              NVARCHAR(200)
    ,[maximum]              NVARCHAR(200)
    ,[value_in_use]         NVARCHAR(200)
    ,[description]          NVARCHAR(200)
    ,[is_dynamic]           BIT
    ,[is_advanced]          BIT
);
GO

The query below has the PATH defined explicitly in the WITH clause. 

SELECT
     [configuration_id]
    ,[Configuration name] 
    ,[Value]          = TRY_CONVERT(sql_variant  , [Value]) 
    ,[minimum]        = TRY_CONVERT(sql_variant  , [minimum]) 
    ,[maximum]        = TRY_CONVERT(sql_variant  , [maximum]) 
    ,[value_in_use]   = TRY_CONVERT(sql_variant  , [value_in_use]) 
    ,[description]    = TRY_CONVERT(sql_variant  , [description]) 
    ,[is_dynamic]
    ,[is_advanced]
FROM
    OPENJSON
(
'
  {
    "configuration_id": 101,
    "Configuration name": "recovery interval (min)",
    "Value": 0,
    "minimum": 0,
    "maximum": 32767,
    "value_in_use": 0,
    "description": "Maximum recovery interval in minutes",
    "is_dynamic": true,
    "is_advanced": true
  }
')
WITH
(
     [configuration_id]     INT               '$.configuration_id'
    ,[Configuration name]   NVARCHAR(35)      '$."Configuration name"'
    ,[Value]                NVARCHAR(200)     '$.Value'
    ,[minimum]              NVARCHAR(200)     '$.minimum'
    ,[maximum]              NVARCHAR(200)     '$.maximum'
    ,[value_in_use]         NVARCHAR(200)     '$.value_in_use'
    ,[description]          NVARCHAR(200)     '$.description'
    ,[is_dynamic]           BIT               '$.is_dynamic'
    ,[is_advanced]          BIT               '$.is_advanced'
);
GO

Notice also that Configuration name has a space in it. So, in the PATH we simply enclose it in double quotes “..” – in a similar way to how square brackets would be used in a T-SQL expression.

Lets, look at a slightly different shaped JSON document and see how we would change the PATH in the WITH clause to locate all of the desired values.

SELECT 
	 [configuration_id]
    ,[Configuration name] 
    ,[Value]          = TRY_CONVERT(sql_variant  , [Value]) 
    ,[minimum]        = TRY_CONVERT(sql_variant  , [minimum]) 
    ,[maximum]        = TRY_CONVERT(sql_variant  , [maximum]) 
    ,[value_in_use]   = TRY_CONVERT(sql_variant  , [value_in_use]) 
    ,[description]    = TRY_CONVERT(sql_variant  , [description]) 
    ,[is_dynamic]
    ,[is_advanced]
FROM
	OPENJSON(
'
{
  "configuration_id": 101,
  "Configuration_Property": {
    "Configuration name": "recovery interval (min)",
    "Value": 0,
    "minimum": 0,
    "maximum": 32767,
    "value_in_use": 0,
    "description": "Maximum recovery interval in minutes",
    "is_dynamic": true,
    "is_advanced": true
  }
}
')
WITH
(
     [configuration_id]     INT            '$."configuration_id"'
    ,[Configuration name]   NVARCHAR(35)   '$."Configuration_Property"."Configuration name"'
    ,[Value]                NVARCHAR(200)  '$."Configuration_Property"."Value"'
    ,[minimum]              NVARCHAR(200)  '$."Configuration_Property"."minimum"'
    ,[maximum]              NVARCHAR(200)  '$."Configuration_Property"."maximum"'
    ,[value_in_use]         NVARCHAR(200)  '$."Configuration_Property"."value_in_use"'
    ,[description]          NVARCHAR(200)  '$."Configuration_Property"."description"'
    ,[is_dynamic]           BIT            '$."Configuration_Property"."is_dynamic"'
    ,[is_advanced]          BIT            '$."Configuration_Property"."is_advanced"'	
);

Notice, that no ‘default path’ is specified on the OPENJSON clause (after the document on line 27).

I hope this has helped on your SQL Server JSON journey. We’ll see more real soon.

Have a great day

Cheers

Marty

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