PL/SQL JSON

One of the many features of Oracle PL/SQL is its support for working with JSON data.

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data format that is easy for developers to read and write and easy for machines to parse and generate. It has become a popular format for exchanging data between web applications and is often used for storing and retrieving data in NoSQL databases.

In Oracle PL/SQL, you can use the built-in JSON functions to parse and generate JSON data. The JSON functions in PL/SQL include functions for parsing JSON data into PL/SQL data structures and for generating JSON data from PL/SQL data structures.

The JSON functions in PL/SQL include:

JSON_VALUE: This function extracts a scalar value from a JSON document.
JSON_QUERY: This function extracts a JSON object or array from a JSON document.
JSON_TABLE: This function converts a JSON document into a relational table.
JSON_OBJECT: This function generates a JSON object from a set of key-value pairs.
JSON_ARRAY: This function generates a JSON array from a set of values.

Using these functions, you can easily work with JSON data in your PL/SQL applications. For example, you can retrieve JSON data from a web service, parse it using the JSON functions, and then insert it into an Oracle database table.

Here is an example of using the JSON_OBJECT function to generate a JSON object from a set of key-value pairs:

DECLARE
  l_json_object JSON_OBJECT_T;
BEGIN
  l_json_object := JSON_OBJECT_T();
  l_json_object.PUT('name', 'John Doe');
  l_json_object.PUT('age', 30);
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(l_json_object.TO_STRING());
END;

This code creates a JSON object with the keys “name” and “age” and their corresponding values and then prints the resulting JSON string to the console.

Oracle PL/SQL also provides support for JSON in stored procedures, triggers, and functions. This means that developers can use JSON data as input and output parameters in their database programs.

Overall, the support for working with JSON data in PL/SQL makes it easier to work with web services and NoSQL databases that use JSON as their data format.