PostgreSQL jsonb_each() Function

Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn how to use the PostgreSQL jsonb_each() function to expand a JSON object into a set of key/value pairs.

Introduction to the PostgreSQL jsonb_each() function

The jsonb_each() function allows you to expand a top-level JSON object of a JSONB value into a set of key/value pairs. The keys are text and values are JSON values.

Here’s the syntax of the jsonb_each() function:

jsonb_each(json_object)

In this syntax:

json_object is the JSON object that you want to expand the key/value pairs.

The function returns a set of records where each record consists of two fields key of type text and value of the JSONB.

If the json_object is not a JSON object, the function will issue an error. In case the json_object is null, the function returns an empty set.

PostgreSQL jsonb_each() function examples

Let’s explore some examples of using the jsonb_each() function.

1) Basic PostgreSQL jsonb_each() function example

The following example uses the jsonb_each function to expand the key/value pair of a JSON object:

SELECT
  *
FROM
  jsonb_each(
    '{"name": "John", "age": 30, "city": "New York"}'
  );

Output:

key  |   value
------+------------
 age  | 30
 city | "New York"
 name | "John"
(3 rows)

If you want to retrieve a particular key, you can filter the key in the WHERE clause.

For example, the following statement returns the name and age of the object:

SELECT
  *
FROM
  jsonb_each(
    '{"name": "John", "age": 30, "city": "New York"}'
  )
WHERE
  key in ('name', 'age');

Output:

key  | value
------+--------
 age  | 30
 name | "John"
(2 rows)

2) Using the jsonb_each() function with table data

First, create a new table called links:

CREATE TABLE links (
    id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    href TEXT NOT NULL,
    attributes JSONB
);

In the links table, the attributes column has the type of JSONB that stores various attributes of a link.

Second, insert some rows into the links table:

INSERT INTO links (href, attributes)
VALUES
    ('https://example.com', '{"rel": "stylesheet", "type": "text/css", "media": "screen"}'),
    ('https://example.org', '{"rel": "icon", "type": "image/x-icon"}'),
    ('https://example.net', '{"rel": "alternate", "type": "application/rss+xml", "title": "RSS Feed"}');

Third, expand the key/value pairs of the objects in attributes column into a set of key/value pairs using the jsonb_each() function:

SELECT
  href,
  key,
  value
FROM
  links,
  jsonb_each(attributes);

Output:

href         |  key  |         value
---------------------+-------+-----------------------
 https://example.com | rel   | "stylesheet"
 https://example.com | type  | "text/css"
 https://example.com | media | "screen"
 https://example.org | rel   | "icon"
 https://example.org | type  | "image/x-icon"
 https://example.net | rel   | "alternate"
 https://example.net | type  | "application/rss+xml"
 https://example.net | title | "RSS Feed"
(8 rows)

Summary

Use the jsonb_each() function to expand a JSON object into a set of key/value pairs.