Query for element of array in JSON column

Question

Recently upgraded to using PostgreSQL 9.3.1 to leverage the JSONfunctionalities. In my table I have a json type column that has a structure like this:

{
   "id": "123",
   "name": "foo",
   "emails":[
      {
        "id": "123",
        "address": "somethinghere"
      },
      {
        "id": "456",
        "address": "soemthing"
      }
   ]
} 

This is just dummy data for the purpose of the question.

Is it possible to query for a specific item in the emails array based on the id?
Pretty much: "return email where id=123)"?

Answer 1

For Postgres 9.4+ see adamc's later answer. Or:

• Query for array elements inside JSON type

Original answer for Postgres 9.3

Yes, that's possible:

SELECT *
FROM   tbl t, json_array_elements(t.json_col->'emails') AS elem
WHERE  elem->>'id' = 123;

tbl being your table name, json_col the name of the JSON column.

See also:

• How do I query using fields inside the new PostgreSQL JSON datatype?

About the implicit CROSS JOIN LATERAL:

• PostgreSQL unnest() with element number

Index to support this kind of query:

• Index for finding an element in a JSON array

Answer 2

With a JSONB column in Postgres 9.4+ you can use the contains operator @> to query for an element in an array:

SELECT * FROM jsontest WHERE data @> '{ "emails": [{ "id": "123" }] }';

See Query for array elements inside JSON type for more details.

Here is a working example:

CREATE TABLE jsontest(data JSONB NOT NULL);
INSERT INTO jsontest VALUES (
  '{
     "name": "foo",
     "id": "123",
     "emails": 
     [
       {
         "address": "somethinghere",
         "id": "123"
       },
       {
         "address": "soemthing",
         "id": "456"
       }
     ]
  }'
);
SELECT * FROM jsontest WHERE data @> '{ "emails": [{ "id": "123" }] }';

data
----
{"id": "123", "name": "foo", "emails": [{"id": "123", "address": "somethinghere"}, {"id": "456", "address": "soemthing"}]}

(1 row)

Answer 3

Came across this post and found that you can directly query on table like this:

SELECT *
FROM   table_name, json_array_elements(json_column) AS data
WHERE  data->>'id' = 123;

Omitting this part:

json_array_elements(t.json_col->'emails')