How to edit a JSON object in PostgreSQL®?

- 2 minutes read - 384 words

PostgreSQL® offers two types of data types to handle JSON data, JSON and JSONB, you can use the jsonb_set function to remove the null values for JSONB columns.

NOTE: To review the differences between JSON and JSONB check out the related article.

NOTE: more info is available in the PostgreSQL JSON functions documentation page

The dataset

The dataset is the following:

{
    "id": 778,
    "shop": "Luigis Pizza",
    "name": "Edward Olson",
    "phoneNumbers":
        ["(935)503-3765x4154","(935)12345"],
    "address": "Unit 9398 Box 2056\nDPO AP 24022",
    "image": null,
    "pizzas": [
        {
            "pizzaName": "Salami",
            "additionalToppings": ["🥓", "🌶️"]
        },
        {
            "pizzaName": "Margherita",
            "additionalToppings": ["🍌", "🌶️", "🍍"]
        }
    ]
}
Check out the description of the fields The following examples use a pizza order dataset with an order having:
  • id: 778
  • shop: “Luigis Pizza”
  • name: “Edward Olson”
  • phoneNumbers:["(935)503-3765x4154","(935)12345"]
  • address: “Unit 9398 Box 2056\nDPO AP 24022”
  • image: null
  • and two pizzas contained in the pizzas item:
[
    {
        "pizzaName": "Salami",
        "additionalToppings": ["🥓", "🌶️"]
    },
    {
        "pizzaName": "Margherita",
        "additionalToppings": ["🍌", "🌶️", "🍍"]
    }
]
If you want to reproduce the examples, check how to recreate the dataset

It can be recreated with the following script:

create table test(id serial, json_data jsonb);

insert into test(json_data) values (
'{
    "id": 778,
    "shop": "Luigis Pizza",
    "name": "Edward Olson",
    "phoneNumbers":
        ["(935)503-3765x4154","(935)12345"],
    "address": "Unit 9398 Box 2056\nDPO AP 24022",
    "image": null,
    "pizzas": [
        {
            "pizzaName": "Salami",
            "additionalToppings": ["🥓", "🌶️"]
        },
        {
            "pizzaName": "Margherita",
            "additionalToppings": ["🍌", "🌶️", "🍍"]
        }
    ]
}');

Edit the JSON object with the jsonb_set function

JSON objects can be edited using the jsonb_set function. To change the first pizzaName in the pizzas item to 4 Stagioni

select
    jsonb_set(
        json_data -> 'pizzas',
        '{0,"pizzaName"}',
        to_jsonb('4 Stagioni'::text), 
        false)
        as change_first_pizza_name
from test;

Result

                                                        change_first_pizza_name
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 [{"pizzaName": "4 Stagioni", "additionalToppings": ["🥓", "🌶️"]}, {"pizzaName": "Margherita", "additionalToppings": ["🍌", "🌶️", "🍍"]}]
(1 row)

The json_set has the following parameters:

  1. the JSON object to edit (json_data -> 'pizzas')
  2. the path to the key to be edited ('{0,"pizzaName"}', 0 is the first pizza in the array, pizzaName is the key)
  3. the new value (to_jsonb('4 Stagioni'::text))
  4. boolean to create field if missing (false)

NOTE: The jsonb_set_lax function has the same output of jsonb_set for non null values. For null values, it changes the behaviour depending on a 5th parameter (null_value_treatment) that can be:

  • raise_exception
  • use_json_null
  • delete_key
  • return_target

Review all the JSON PostgreSQL use-cases listed in the main page