Postgres SELECT * FROM Table where array has element - sql

Question

I am using Postgres 9.3.2 to make a database of contacts.
Example: If i have a row in my table that looks something like this.
{
firstName : "First name"
lastName : "Last name"
emails : ["email#one.com", "email#two.com", "email#three.com]
}
PS: firstName, lastName and emails are columns in my db and the value associated is the value for that column for that specific row.
I want to be able to query the db so that if i query for the email "email#four.com" the result is nothing but if i query for "email#two.com" the result will be the above row entry.
I dont think the query
"Select * from contactTable where emails="email#two.com""
will work. instead i want to do something like
"Select * from contactTable where emails contains "email#two.com""
any ideas on how to do this?

Answer 1

"Select * from contactTable where emails contains "email#two.com""
I think you want:
"Select * from contactTable where thejsonfield -> emails
Example setup, after fixing up your totally broken json:
CREATE TABLE contacts AS SELECT '{
"firstName" : "First name",
"lastName" : "Last name",
"emails" : ["email#one.com", "email#two.com", "email#three.com"]
}'::json AS myjsonfield;
The following will work in PostgreSQL 9.4, but unfortunately does not in 9.3 due to the oversight of the missing json_array_elements_text function:
select *
from contacts,
lateral json_array_elements_text(myjsonfield -> 'emails') email
where email = 'email#two.com';
For 9.3, you have to use a clumsier method to scan the json array for matching values:
select *
from contacts,
lateral json_array_length(myjsonfield -> 'emails') numemails,
lateral generate_series(0, numemails) n
WHERE json_array_element_text(myjsonfield -> 'emails', n) = 'email#two.com';
You can't use the simple IN or = ANY constructs because (at this point) PostgreSQL doesn't understand that you might have a json array, so it'll fail with:
regress=> SELECT * FROM contacts WHERE 'email#two.com' = ANY (myjsonfield->'emails');
ERROR: op ANY/ALL (array) requires array on right side
LINE 1: SELECT * FROM contacts WHERE 'email#two.com' = ANY (myjsonfi...
^
as it expects a PostgreSQL array, not a json array, and there's no convenient builtin to turn a json array into a PostgreSQL array yet.

Answer 2

Postgres has support for parsing JSON. Here is documentation: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/functions-json.html. I can't give you more detailed answer since you didn't provide exact data and schema, but it's easy to find the right function in documentation.