Update JSON array using SQL Server - sql

Question

I have JSON like below:
{
"property": {
"commonProperty": "abc",
"Items": [
{
"ID": 1,
"Name": "a"
},
{
"ID": 2,
"Name": "a"
},
{
"ID": 3,
"Name": "b"
}
]
}
}
And what I want to achieve is to update Names to "c" where it's currently "a" using SQL Server (so I want to have result like below).
{
"property": {
"commonProperty": "abc",
"Items": [
{
"ID": 1,
"Name": "c"
},
{
"ID": 2,
"Name": "c"
},
{
"ID": 3,
"Name": "b"
}
]
}
}
As far as I know I cannot use JSON_MODIFY because it does not handles queries inside it's arguments and OPENJSON cannot be updated. Is there any method I can use?
EDIT note: added common property above Items.

Answer 1

You may try one of the following options:
Parse the '$.property.Items' JSON array as table using OPENJSON(), make an update, output the table's content as JSON using FOR JSON and modify the original JSON using JSON_MODIFY():
Build a dynamic statement. You can modify the input JSON using JSON_MODIFY() and the appropriate path. The path needs to be defined as a literal or from SQL Server 2017 as a variable, but using a wildcard is not possible (e.g. the statement SELECT #json = JSON_MODIFY(#json, '$.property.Items[0].Name', N'c') modifies the first item in the Items JSON array).
JSON:
DECLARE #json nvarchar(max) = N'{
"property":{
"commonProperty":"abc",
"Items":[
{
"ID":1,
"Name":"a"
},
{
"ID":2,
"Name":"a"
},
{
"ID":3,
"Name":"b"
}
]
}
}'
Statement (that parses the JSON as a table, modifies the table and outputs the table's content as JSON):
SELECT #json = JSON_MODIFY(
#json,
'$.property.Items',
(
SELECT
ID AS 'ID',
CASE WHEN Name = N'a' THEN N'c' ELSE Name END AS 'Name'
FROM OPENJSON(#json, '$.property.Items') WITH (ID int, Name nvarchar(50))
FOR JSON PATH
)
)
Dynamic statement:
DECLARE #stm nvarchar(max)
SET #stm = (
SELECT N'SET #json = JSON_MODIFY(#json, ''$.property.Items[' + [key] + N'].Name'', N''c''); '
FROM OPENJSON(#json, '$.property.Items')
WHERE JSON_VALUE([value], '$.Name') = N'a'
FOR XML PATH('')
)
PRINT #stm
EXEC sp_executesql #stm, N'#json nvarchar(max) OUTPUT', #json OUTPUT