Reading JSON array as one of the SQL table column - sql

Question

I am trying to read a json array into a table, one of the nodes (Languages) in the array is an array in itself, and I am getting null for this particular column (Languages).
Below is the sample json:
DECLARE #json NVARCHAR(MAX) = '[
{
"Id":1,
"Name":"Test1",
"Languages":["L1", "L2"]
},
{
"Id":2,
"Name":"Test2",
"Languages":["L3", "L4"]
},
{
"Id":3,
"Name":"Test2",
"Languages":["L5", "L6"]
}]'
Below is the query I am using:
SELECT Id
, Name
, Languages
FROM OPENJSON(#json)
WITH (Id INT '$.Id'
, Name VARCHAR(20) '$.Name'
, Languages VARCHAR(200) '$.Languages')
Below is the current result:
However I need the result as below
What am I doing wrong? Please help.

Answer 1

You can use NVARCHAR(max) as json for Language item inside WITH clause.
From Microsoft docs (all the details can be found here):
If you don't specify AS JSON for a column, the function returns a
scalar value (for example, int, string, true, false) from the
specified JSON property on the specified path. If the path represents
an object or an array, and the property can't be found at the
specified path, the function returns null in lax mode or returns an
error in strict mode. This behavior is similar to the behavior of the
JSON_VALUE function.
So your query should look like this:
SELECT Id
, Name
, Languages
FROM OPENJSON(#json)
WITH (Id INT '$.Id'
, Name VARCHAR(20) '$.Name'
, Languages NVARCHAR(max) as json)
Results:

Answer 2

I hope maybe this query will be help you. Result is little bit different from you want.
DECLARE #json NVARCHAR(MAX) = '{"UserLang":[
{
"Id":1,
"Name":"Test1",
"Languages":["L1", "L2"]
},
{
"Id":2,
"Name":"Test2",
"Languages":["L3", "L4"]
},
{
"Id":3,
"Name":"Test2",
"Languages":["L5", "L6"]
}]}'
SELECT
JSON_VALUE(d.value,'$.Id') AS Id,
JSON_VALUE(d.value,'$.Name') AS Languages,
l.value AS Name
FROM OPENJSON(#json,'$.UserLang') AS d CROSS APPLY OPENJSON (d.value,'$.Languages') AS l