Oracle 12c – SQL for JSON (Part 2): Basic Queries

This blog provides a small tour of basic SQL queries that operate on JSON in context of the Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1.0.2.0).

Sample Data Set

The following very basic data set is used as an example in this blog. It is kept simple in order to be able to focus on the queries without having to deal with complex JSON objects at the same time.

First, a simple table is created that contains a JSON column. Next, some rows containing JSON objects are inserted.

DROP TABLE demo;

CREATE TABLE demo
( id NUMBER,
  player CLOB 
    CONSTRAINT player_ensure_json 
      CHECK (player IS JSON (STRICT WITH UNIQUE KEYS)));

INSERT INTO demo 
VALUES (1, '{"person": "Bob", "score": 10}');

INSERT INTO demo 
VALUES (2, '{"person": "Bob", "score": 20}');

INSERT INTO demo 
VALUES (3, '{"person": "Jake", "score": 100}');

INSERT INTO demo 
VALUES (4, '{"person": "Jake", "score": 200}');

INSERT INTO demo 
VALUES (5, '{"person": "Alice", "score": 1000}');

With the sample data set in place, we can now construct a complex query in several steps.

Selection and Projection

The most basic query selecting the complete data set is

SELECT * FROM demo d;

A basic projection extracting only the person from the JSON objects is

SELECT d.player.person FROM demo d;

A basic selection restricting the JSON objects is

SELECT d.player.person
FROM demo d
WHERE d.player.person IN ('Jake', 'Bob');

The syntax for accessing properties in JSON objects is in principle

<table alias>.<JSON column>.<path to JSON object key>

with variations on JSON array index references if required (http://docs.oracle.com/database/121/ADXDB/json.htm#ADXDB6246).

A more complex selection with an additional restriction is

SELECT d.player.person
FROM demo d
WHERE d.player.score > 0
  AND d.player.person IN ('Jake', 'Bob');

Ordering

Results can be ordered, for example, in the following way

SELECT d.player.person
FROM demo d
WHERE d.player.score > 0
AND d.player.person IN ('Jake', 'Bob');
ORDER BY d.player.person DESC;

Grouping

Results can be grouped also as a preparation for aggregation

SELECT d.player.person
FROM demo d
WHERE d.player.score > 0
  AND d.player.person IN ('Jake', 'Bob');
GROUP BY d.player.person
ORDER BY d.player.person DESC;

Aggregation

Different aggregation functions can be used to do some basic analysis

SELECT d.player.person,
  SUM(d.player.score),
  AVG(d.player.score),
  MIN(d.player.score),
  COUNT(*)
FROM demo d
WHERE d.player.score > 0
  AND d.player.person IN ('Jake', 'Bob');
GROUP BY d.player.person
ORDER BY d.player.person DESC;

Final Result

The final result is show here in table representation (copied from SQLDeveloper)

Inspiration

This example was inspired, in fact, by http://www.querymongo.com. There, the MySQL Query

is translated to one of MongoDB’s query interfaces to

(web site accessed on 10/21/2014).

Summary

In summary, SQL functionality is available not only for the relational model in the Oracle Database 12c, but also for JSON-based data.

This makes the Oracle database a quite powerful JSON processing environment as querying JSON data is possible through the declarative SQL language.

Disclaimer

The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.