PARSE_JSON

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Syntax

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Scalar

parse_json(json_string)

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Snowflake (scalar)

parse_json(json_string [, mode])

• Snowflake context only.

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Arguments

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Scalar

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Snowflake

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Returns

• Type: VARIANT
• NULL behavior: SQL NULL, empty text and whitespace-only text return SQL NULL. Text containing JSON null produces a VARIANT JSON-null value distinct from SQL NULL.
• Shape: A VARIANT scalar, object, or array. This is a VARIANT value rather than an ordinary SQL STRUCT.
• Ordering: Array element order is preserved; object-key order is not a SQL ordering guarantee.

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Properties

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Usage notes

• Default strict mode rejects duplicate object keys. Snowflake mode may select last-write-wins duplicate handling using a constant mode argument.
• Fractional JSON numbers are encoded as DOUBLE instead of fixed-point decimal.
• Deterministic: The same inputs and settings produce the same result.

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Examples

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Typical behavior

SELECT typeof(parse_json('{"a":1}')) AS "value";

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Read a nested value after parsing

SELECT get_path(parse_json('{"items":[10,20]}'), '$.items[1]') AS second_item;

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Limitations

• A VARIANT value’s total encoded size is limited to 128 MiB.
• Only Snowflake context supports the optional mode argument. Modes s/S and d/D are recognized; NULL, nonconstant or other mode values are argument errors even for TRY_PARSE_JSON.
• PARSE_JSON raises a per-row parsing error; TRY_PARSE_JSON converts per-row parsing failures to NULL but does not suppress argument validation errors.

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Related functions

• get_path
• variant_get
• try_parse_json