PostgreSQL® offers two types of data types to handle JSON data, JSON
and JSONB
, and provides two different ways to tabulate a JSON to a record:
- the
json_populate_record
(jsonb_populate_record
for JSONB) function using an existing database type - the
json_to_record
(jsonb_to_record
for JSONB) function defining the list of fields
NOTE: To review the differences between
JSON
andJSONB
check out the related article.
NOTE: more info is available in the PostgreSQL JSON functions documentation page
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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
: 778shop
: “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": ["🍌", "🌶️", "🍍"]
}
]
}');
Tabulate a JSON to a record using an existing database type with the json_populate_record
function
To tabulate a JSON document to a table record using an existing database type you can use the json_populate_record
(jsonb_populate_record
in the example for JSONB column). To tabulate the JSON document:
- Create a dedicated database type
create type pizzaOrder as (id int, name text, address text);
- Tabulate the JSON using the dedicated function
select p.*
from test cross join lateral
jsonb_populate_record(
null::pizzaOrder, json_data) p;
Result
id | name | address
-----+--------------+--------------------
778 | Edward Olson | Unit 9398 Box 2056+
| | DPO AP 24022
Tabulate a JSON to a record defining the list of fields with the json_to_record
function
To tabulate a JSON document to a table record defining the list of fields you can use the json_to_record
(jsonb_to_record
in the example for JSONB column). To tabulate the JSON document:
select p.* from test
cross join lateral
jsonb_to_record(json_data)
as p(id int, "phoneNumbers" text[]);
Result
id | phoneNumbers
-----+---------------------------------
778 | {(935)503-3765x4154,(935)12345}
Review all the JSON PostgreSQL use-cases listed in the main page