SQL Server JSON Export from Table or Query Data

JSON File format is becoming very popular due to its simplicity and smaller size. Most of NoSQL Databases are now using JSON for their document mechanism. In this article we will learn how to use various techniques to generate JSON data files from SQL Server Table or any other relational source such as MySQL or Oracle. This article is mainly focused on exporting data from Microsoft SQL Server to JSON but you can use same tools/techniques to export from any RDBMS (As long as you have correct drivers installed.).

Lets say you want to export customer data along with orders they placed as nested JSON document then we have to supply Map file so JSON Generator can figure out how to JOIN two datasets and how to Shape JSON. In below example we are doing 3 nested levels for demo purpose. Customer joined with Orders by CustomerID key, Orders Joined with Employee by EmployeeID key.

MySampleMap.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<settings ver="1">
  <dataset id="cust" main="true">select * from Customers</dataset>
  <dataset id="ord">select * from Orders</dataset>
  <dataset id="emp">select * from Employees</dataset>
  <join parentid="cust" childid="ord" keys="CustomerID" />
  <join parentid="ord" childid="emp" keys="EmployeeID" />

  <map src="CustomerID" name="ID" />
  <map src="CompanyName" />
  <map name="Contact">
    <map src="Phone" />
    <map src="Fax" />
    <map name="Location">
      <map src="Country" />
      <map src="Region" />
    </map>
  </map>

  <map name="OrderIDList" dataset="ord" maptype="valuearray" src="OrderID"/>
  <map name="Orders" dataset="ord">
    <map src="OrderID" />
    <map src="OrderDate" />
    <map name="EmpInfo" dataset="emp">
      <map src="EmployeeID" />
      <map src="FirstName" />
    </map>
  </map>
</settings>

c:\tools>db.exe export --map c:\MySampleMap.xml --out c:\data\customers.json --connstr "Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=Northwind;Integrated Security=SSPI;"

customers.json : Output JSON generated from above Command

[
  {
    "ID": "ALFKI",
    "CompanyName": "Alfreds Futterkiste",
    "Contact": {
      "Phone": "030-0074321",
      "Fax": "030-0076545",
      "Location": {
        "Country": "Germany",
        "Region": null
      }
    },
    "OrderIDList": [10643,10692],
    "Orders": [
      {
        "OrderID": 10643,
        "OrderDate": "1997-08-25",
        "EmpInfo": [
          {
            "EmployeeID": 6,
            "FirstName": "Michael"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "OrderID": 10702,
        "OrderDate": "1997-10-13",
        "EmpInfo": [
          {
            "EmployeeID": 4,
            "FirstName": "Margaret"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  {
    "ID": "ANATR",
    "CompanyName": "Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados",
    "Contact": {
      "Phone": "(5) 555-4729",
      "Fax": "(5) 555-3745",
      "Location": {
        "Country": "Mexico",
        "Region": null
      }
    },
    "OrderIDList": [10308,10625,10759,10926],
    "Orders": [
      {
        "OrderID": 10308,
        "OrderDate": "1996-09-18",
        "EmpInfo": [
          {
            "EmployeeID": 7,
            "FirstName": "Robert"
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "OrderID": 10625,
        "OrderDate": "1997-08-08",
        "EmpInfo": [
          {
            "EmployeeID": 3,
            "FirstName": "Janet"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
]

Sometimes you may have need to split large amount of data into multiple files. With ZappyShell command line you can split data three different ways. Lets check each example.

SQL Server JSON Export – Split By Row Count

c:\tools>db.exe export customers --out c:\data\cust.json --split --splitrows 1000 --connstr "Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=Northwind;Integrated Security=SSPI;"

SQL Server JSON Export – Split Files By File Size

c:\tools>db.exe export customers --out c:\data\cust.json --split --splitsize 10MB --connstr "Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=Northwind;Integrated Security=SSPI;"

SQL Server JSON Export – Split Files By Group By Column

In this example we have exported customers in to separate file by country.

c:\tools>db.exe export customers --out c:\data\cust.json --groupby Country --connstr "Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=Northwind;Integrated Security=SSPI;"

ZappyShell – Export SQL Server Table to JSON, Split files by Country Column

 

If you want to output compressed JSON (GZIP format) then use below command.

c:\tools>db.exe export customers --out c:\data\cust.json --gzip --connstr "Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=Northwind;Integrated Security=SSPI;"

If you want to use date time place holders in file name so it automatically uses specified date time parts use below command simply putting specifiers in file name anywhere.

c:\tools>db.exe export customers --out c:\data\cust_{{YYYY}}_{{MM}}_{{DD}}_{{HH24}}_{{MI}}_{{SS}}.json --connstr "Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=Northwind;Integrated Security=SSPI;"

c:\tools>db.exe export customers --out c:\data\cust.json --json-multi-content --connstr "Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=Northwind;Integrated Security=SSPI;"

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