Access JSON_VALUE from SQL Column containing JSON String with Arrays - tsql

Question

Looking to use JSON_VALUE to access some data within a JSON column in an SQL Server table.
I have a table (tblMyTable) that has the following columns and data;
| Column1 | JSONColumn |
| -------- | -------------- |
| 1 | {some JSON} |
Where {some JSON} looks as follows;
[
{
"RoleName":"Client",
"Roles":[
{
"ContactID":21568,
"ContactName":"FullName1"
},
{
"ContactID":31568,
"ContactName":"FullName2"
}
]
},
{
"RoleName":"Owner",
"Roles":[
{
"ContactID":1,
"ContactName":"Billy Buxton"
}
]
}
]
I am wanting to use something like this to access the ContactName of Billy Buxton;
SELECT JSON_VALUE(JSONColumn, '$[Owner].Roles[0].ContactName') AS ContactName
FROM tblMyTable
WHERE Column1=1
RESULT:
| ContactName |
| ----------- |
| Billy Buxton|
The issue is that I don't know where the Owner RoleName is in the JSON so I can't use;
'$[0].Roles[0].ContactName' as it might be '$[1].Roles' or '$[10].Roles'.
Is there a way to do this by specifying the 'Owner' or 'Client' RoleName?
In addition, if I use the following I would get the array of ContactNames;
SELECT JSON_QUERY(JSONColumn, '$[Client].Roles.ContactName') AS ContactNames
FROM tblMyTable
WHERE Column1=1
RESULT:
| ContactNames |
| ------------------ |
| FullName1,FullName2|
I am able to change the structure of the JSON if needed, and would consider using OpenJSON if that works with specifying a path (eg; $[Owner].Roles[0].ContactName or similar)
I had come up with the following option, but it's using OPENJSON which is much messier than using JSON_VALUE or JSON_QUERY;
SELECT Y.RoleName,STRING_AGG(Z.ContactName,',') AS ContactName
FROM (
SELECT '[{"RoleName":"Client","Roles":[{"ContactID":21568,"ContactName":"FullName1"},{"ContactID":31568,"ContactName":"FullName2"}]},{"RoleName":"Owner","Roles":[{"ContactID":1,"ContactName":"Billy Buxton"}]}]' AS Roles
)X
CROSS APPLY OPENJSON (X.Roles)
WITH (
RoleName VarChar(50),
Roles nVarChar(MAX) AS JSON
)Y
CROSS APPLY OPENJSON (Y.Roles)
WITH (
ContactID BigInt,
ContactName VarChar(255)
)Z
WHERE Y.RoleName='Client'
GROUP BY Y.RoleName
RESULT:
| RoleName | ContactName |
| -------- | ------------------ |
| Client | FullName1,FullName2|
Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.

Answer 1

Check if this solve your needs
---------------- DDL+DML
use tempdb
GO
CREATE TABLE tblMyTable (ID INT, JSONColumn NVARCHAR(MAX))
GO
INSERT tblMyTable (ID, JSONColumn)
VALUES (1, ' [
{
"RoleName":"Client",
"Roles":[
{
"ContactID":21568,
"ContactName":"FullName1"
},
{
"ContactID":31568,
"ContactName":"FullName2"
}
]
},
{
"RoleName":"Owner",
"Roles":[
{
"ContactID":1,
"ContactName":"Billy Buxton"
}
]
}
]')
GO
---------- Solution
select ID, RoleName, Roles, Soluion = JSON_VALUE(Roles, '$[0].ContactName')
from tblMyTable t
CROSS APPLY OpenJson(t.JSONColumn)
WITH (
RoleName VarChar(50),
Roles nVarChar(MAX) AS JSON
)Y
WHERE RoleName = 'Owner'
GO
Note! I assume that there is only one role for the Owner, which is why I can use $[0]