Re: Convert JSON value back to postgres representation

Good to know. Thank you!

On Fri, Jun 20, 2025 at 7:17 AM David G. Johnston <
david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:

> On Thursday, June 19, 2025, Laurenz Albe <laurenz(dot)albe(at)cybertec(dot)at> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 2025-06-19 at 23:05 +0200, Phillip Diffley wrote:
>> > Postgres has a to_jsonb function that will convert a value into its
>> jsonb representation.
>> > I am now trying to turn a json value back into its postgres type. I was
>> hoping there would
>> > be something like a from_jsonb function that, along with a type hint,
>> could be used as an
>> > inverse of to_jsonb, like
>> >
>> > from_jsonb(to_jsonb('{1,2,3}'::int[]) as int[]
>> >
>> > but I do not see a function like this. I was able to convert a json
>> value back to its
>> > postgres representation using the jsonb_to_record function, as used in
>> the WHERE expression
>> > below, but I feel like there might be a better way to do this.
>> >
>> > CREATE TABLE mytable (id int, col1 int[]);
>> > INSERT INTO mytable VALUES (1, '{1, 2, 3}'), (2, '{3, 4, 5}');
>> > SELECT * from mytable WHERE col1 = (select col1 from
>> json_to_record('{"col1": [1, 2, 3]}'::JSON) as x(col1 int[]));
>> >
>> > Is there a preferred method for turning a JSON value back to its
>> postgres representation?
>>
>> I think jsonb_populate_record() is the closest thing to what you envision.
>>
>
> jsonb_to_record avoids the temporary type.
>
> select * from jsonb_to_record('{"ia":[1,2,3]}'::jsonb) as r (ia integer[]);
>
> There is a gap for arrays. Scalars you can just cast and composites have
> these functions. But no simple/direct way to go from json array to sql
> array is presently implemented.
>
> Though since 17 json_query can apparently do it.
>
> select pg_typeof( json_query('[1,2,3]'::jsonb, '$' returning integer[]) )
> -> integer[]
>
>
> David J.
>
>