sqljsonsql-servert-sql

SQL Server : query columns to JSON object with group by


I have a table with 3 columns, I want to query that table such that the result will be a JSON object.

Sample data looks like this:

 CREATE TABLE #Test (ValueV INT, KEYS NVARCHAR (100), ID INT) 

 INSERT INTO #Test 
 VALUES (1, N'ChangeAdress 19 - 21', 200),
        (1, N'ChangeAdress 20 - 22', 200),
        (1, N'ChangeAdress 22 - 24', 300),
        (1, N'ChangeAdress 23 - 25', 300),
        (2, N'ChangeAdress 24 - 26', 400),
        (2, N'ChangeAdress 25 - 27', 400),
        (3, N'ChangeAdress 26 - 28', 400),
        (3, N'ChangeAdress 27 - 29', 400)

 SELECT * FROM #Test

My query attempt:

 SELECT ID, Keys, ValueV
 FROM #Test  
 GROUP BY ID, keys, ValueV
 FOR JSON AUTO

But that returns 1 JSON 'row'. What I want, is one row per group. Group being here ID, Value combination. I have little experience with JSON objects (which is probably visible from this query), so help would be appreciated.

The desired output (but then as JSON per row):

 --------------------------------------------------
|200, 1, ChangeAdress 19 - 21, ChangeAdress 20 - 22|
|300, 1, ChangeAdress 22 - 24, ChangeAdress 23 - 25|
|400, 2, ChangeAdress 24 - 26, ChangeAdress 25 - 27|
|400, 3, ChangeAdress 26 - 28, ChangeAdress 27 - 29|

Thanks in advance!


Solution

  • This works (in SQL Server 2017, where STRING_AGG is available), but is quite clumsy. I'm not sure there's not a more elegant way.

    SELECT (
        SELECT 
           ID, 
           ValueV, 
           Keys = JSON_QUERY('["' + STRING_AGG(STRING_ESCAPE(Keys, 'json'), '","') + '"]')
        FOR JSON PATH
    )
    FROM #Test 
    GROUP BY ID, ValueV
    

    For SQL Server 2016 (which has no STRING_AGG, or STRING_ESCAPE for that matter):

    SELECT (
        SELECT ID, ValueV, Keys = JSON_QUERY(REPLACE(REPLACE(
            (
                SELECT Keys 
                FROM #Test t2 WHERE t2.ID = t1.ID AND t2.ValueV = t1.ValueV 
                FOR JSON PATH
            ),
            '{"Keys":', ''),
            '}', ''))
        FOR JSON PATH
    )
    FROM #Test t1
    GROUP BY ID, ValueV
    

    Even less elegant, but you take what you can get. At least we're not concatenating with FOR XML...