How do I modify fields inside the new PostgreSQL JSON datatype?

Question

With postgresql 9.3 I can SELECT specific fields of a JSON data type, but how do you modify them using UPDATE? I can\'t find any examples of this in the postgresql documenta

Answer 1

what do you think about this solution ?

It will add the new value or update an existing one.

Edit: edited to make it work with null and empty object

Edit2: edited to make it work with object in the object...

create or replace function updateJsonb(object1 json, object2 json)
returns jsonb
language plpgsql
as
$$
declare
    result jsonb;
    tempObj1 text;
    tempObj2 text;

begin
    tempObj1 = substr(object1::text, 2, length(object1::text) - 2); --remove the first { and last }
    tempObj2 = substr(object2::text, 2, length(object2::text) - 2); --remove the first { and last }

    IF object1::text != '{}' and object1::text != 'null' and object1::text != '[]' THEN
        result = ('{' || tempObj1 || ',' || tempObj2 || '}')::jsonb;
    ELSE
        result = ('{' || tempObj2 || '}')::jsonb;
    END IF;
    return result;
end;
$$;

usage:

update table_name
set data = updatejsonb(data, '{"test": "ok"}'::json)

Answer 2

If you want to use values from other columns in your JSON update command you can use string concatenation:

UPDATE table
SET column1 = column1::jsonb - 'key' || ('{"key": ' || column2::text ||  '}')::jsonb
where ...;

Answer 3

With PostgreSQL 9.4, we've implemented the following python function. It may also work with PostgreSQL 9.3.

create language plpython2u;

create or replace function json_set(jdata jsonb, jpaths jsonb, jvalue jsonb) returns jsonb as $$
import json

a = json.loads(jdata)
b = json.loads(jpaths)

if a.__class__.__name__ != 'dict' and a.__class__.__name__ != 'list':
  raise plpy.Error("The json data must be an object or a string.")

if b.__class__.__name__ != 'list':
   raise plpy.Error("The json path must be an array of paths to traverse.")

c = a
for i in range(0, len(b)):
  p = b[i]
  plpy.notice('p == ' + str(p))

  if i == len(b) - 1:
    c[p] = json.loads(jvalue)

  else:
    if p.__class__.__name__ == 'unicode':
      plpy.notice("Traversing '" + p + "'")
      if c.__class__.__name__ != 'dict':
        raise plpy.Error("  The value here is not a dictionary.")
      else:
        c = c[p]

    if p.__class__.__name__ == 'int':
      plpy.notice("Traversing " + str(p))
      if c.__class__.__name__ != 'list':
        raise plpy.Error("  The value here is not a list.")
      else:
        c = c[p]

    if c is None:
      break    

return json.dumps(a)
$$ language plpython2u ;

Example usage:

create table jsonb_table (jsonb_column jsonb);
insert into jsonb_table values
('{"cars":["Jaguar", {"type":"Unknown","partsList":[12, 34, 56]}, "Atom"]}');

select jsonb_column->'cars'->1->'partsList'->2, jsonb_column from jsonb_table;

update jsonb_table
set jsonb_column = json_set(jsonb_column, '["cars",1,"partsList",2]', '99');

select jsonb_column->'cars'->1->'partsList'->2, jsonb_column from jsonb_table;

Note that for a previous employer, I have written a set of C functions for manipulating JSON data as text (not as a json or jsonb type) for PostgreSQL 7, 8 and 9. For example, extracting data with json_path('{"obj":[12, 34, {"num":-45.67}]}', '$.obj[2]['num']'), setting data with json_path_set('{"obj":[12, 34, {"num":-45.67}]}', '$.obj[2]['num']', '99.87') and so on. It took about 3 days work, so if you need it to run on legacy systems and have the time to spare, it may be worth the effort. I imagine the C version is much faster than the python version.

Answer 4

Sadly, I've not found anything in the documentation, but you can use some workaround, for example you could write some extended function.

For example, in Python:

CREATE or REPLACE FUNCTION json_update(data json, key text, value json)
returns json
as $$
from json import loads, dumps
if key is None: return data
js = loads(data)
js[key] = value
return dumps(js)
$$ language plpython3u

and then

update test set data=json_update(data, 'a', to_json(5)) where data->>'b' = '2';

Answer 5

The following plpython snippet might come in handy.

CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS plpythonu;
CREATE LANGUAGE plpythonu;

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION json_update(data json, key text, value text)
 RETURNS json
 AS $$
    import json
    json_data = json.loads(data)
    json_data[key] = value
    return json.dumps(json_data, indent=4)
 $$ LANGUAGE plpythonu;

-- Check how JSON looks before updating

SELECT json_update(content::json, 'CFRDiagnosis.mod_nbs', '1')
FROM sc_server_centre_document WHERE record_id = 35 AND template = 'CFRDiagnosis';

-- Once satisfied update JSON inplace

UPDATE sc_server_centre_document SET content = json_update(content::json, 'CFRDiagnosis.mod_nbs', '1')
WHERE record_id = 35 AND template = 'CFRDiagnosis';

Answer 6

You can try updating as below:

Syntax: UPDATE table_name SET column_name = column_name::jsonb || '{"key":new_value}' WHERE column_name condition;

For your example:

UPDATE test SET data = data::jsonb || '{"a":new_value}' WHERE data->>'b' = '2';