Exploring SQL Server 2016 JSON data Part 1

Now-a-days JSON ( javascript Object Notation ) data format has become popular in terms of exchanging data to different data sources. It is the primary format in storing data for NoSQL databases like Azure DocumentDB , MongoDB , etc. It is easily in readable format and can store unstructured data as well.

You can parse and generate data in JSON format in SQL Server from the version 2016 onwards. In this post we will explore how to generate data in simple JSON format.

Let us create the following dataset

create table #emp(emp_name varchar(100), dob date) insert into #emp(emp_name,dob) select 'Madhivanan','2000-10-19' union all select 'Saran','1998-04-22' union all select 'Mugil','1978-02-14'

Now you can use JSON AUTO option to generate data in json format as show below

select * from #emp for json auto

The result is

JSON_F52E2B61-18A1-11d1-B105-00805F49916B [{ "emp_name": "Madhivanan", "dob": "2000-10-19" }, { "emp_name": "Saran", "dob": "1998-04-22" }, { "emp_name": "Mugil", "dob": "1978-02-14" }]

As you can see, each column is by default separated by colon and each row is separated by comma and all values are within double quotes.

If you want to add single top level element on the top say “Employee”, that can be done using ROOT option as shown below

select * from #emp for json auto, root('Employee')

The result is

JSON_F52E2B61-18A1-11d1-B105-00805F49916B { "Employee": [{ "emp_name": "Madhivanan", "dob": "2000-10-19" }, { "emp_name": "Saran", "dob": "1998-04-22" }, { "emp_name": "Mugil", "dob": "1978-02-14" }] }

If you want to have a column alias you can do like below

select (select * from #emp for json auto, root('Employee')) as test_json

The result is

test_json { "Employee": [{ "emp_name": "Madhivanan", "dob": "2000-10-19" }, { "emp_name": "Saran", "dob": "1998-04-22" }, { "emp_name": "Mugil", "dob": "1978-02-14" }] }