Skip to content

use-openjson-with-the-default-schema-sql-server.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
114 lines (84 loc) · 3.36 KB

use-openjson-with-the-default-schema-sql-server.md

File metadata and controls

114 lines (84 loc) · 3.36 KB
title Use OPENJSON with the Default Schema
description Use OPENJSON with the default schema.
author WilliamDAssafMSFT
ms.author wiassaf
ms.reviewer jovanpop, umajay
ms.date 07/23/2025
ms.service sql
ms.topic language-reference
ms.custom
ignite-2025
helpviewer_keywords
OPENJSON, with default schema
monikerRange =azuresqldb-current || =azure-sqldw-latest || >=sql-server-2016 || >=sql-server-linux-2017 || =azuresqldb-mi-current || =fabric-sqldb

Use OPENJSON with the Default Schema

[!INCLUDE SQL Server 2016 Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance Azure Synapse Analytics FabricSQLDB]

Use OPENJSON with the default schema to return a table with one row for each property of the object or for each element in the array.

Here are some examples that use OPENJSON with the default schema. For more info and more examples, see OPENJSON (Transact-SQL).

Example - Return each property of an object

Query

SELECT *
FROM OPENJSON('{"name":"John","surname":"Doe","age":45}')

Results

Key Value
name John
surname Doe
age 45

Example - Return each element of an array

Query

SELECT [key],value
FROM OPENJSON('["en-GB", "en-UK","de-AT","es-AR","sr-Cyrl"]')

Results

Key Value
0 en-GB
1 en-UK
2 de-AT
3 es-AR
4 sr-Cyrl

Example - Convert JSON to a temporary table

The following query returns all properties of the info object.

DECLARE @json NVARCHAR(MAX)

SET @json=N'{  
     "info":{    
       "type":1,  
       "address":{    
         "town":"Bristol",  
         "county":"Avon",  
         "country":"Great Britain"  
       },  
       "tags":["Sport", "Water polo"]  
    },  
    "type":"Basic"  
 }'

SELECT *
FROM OPENJSON(@json,N'lax $.info')

Results

Key Value Type
type 1 0
address { "town":"Bristol", "county":"Avon", "country":"Great Britain" } 5
tags [ "Sport", "Water polo" ] 4

Example - Combine relational data and JSON data

In the following example, the SalesOrderHeader table has a SalesReason text column that contains an array of SalesOrderReasons in JSON format. The SalesOrderReasons objects contain properties like "Manufacturer" and "Quality." The example creates a report that joins every sales order row to the related sales reasons by expanding the JSON array of sales reasons as if the reasons were stored in a separate child table.

SELECT SalesOrderID,OrderDate,value AS Reason
FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader
CROSS APPLY OPENJSON(SalesReasons)

In this example, OPENJSON returns a table of sales reasons in which the reasons appear as the value column. The CROSS APPLY operator joins each sales order row to the rows returned by the OPENJSON table-valued function.

Learn more about JSON in the SQL Database Engine

Microsoft videos

For a visual introduction to the built-in JSON support, see the following videos:

Related content