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authorAlexander Korotkov <akorotkov@postgresql.org>2021-01-29 15:27:55 +0300
committerAlexander Korotkov <akorotkov@postgresql.org>2021-01-29 15:28:14 +0300
commit9915fe22969a46f9d06d6c2c53dea7269ec4cc7e (patch)
tree82b48d7e25515760491b58d0ab4fcae29bceaccd
parent4a9ce085ab30ad01ffe03eb1743da82b1be280c1 (diff)
Document behavior of the .** jsonpath accessor in the lax mode
When the .** jsonpath accessor handles the array, it selects both array and each of its elements. When using lax mode, subsequent accessors automatically unwrap arrays. So, the content of each array element may be selected twice. Even though this behavior is counterintuitive, it's correct because everything works as designed. This commit documents it. Backpatch to 12 where the jsonpath language was introduced. Reported-by: Thomas Kellerer Bug: #16828 Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/16828-2b0229babfad2d8c%40postgresql.org Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/CAPpHfdtS-nNidT%3DEqZbAYOPcnNOWh_sd6skVdu2CAQUGdvpT8Q%40mail.gmail.com Author: Alexandex Korotkov, revised by Tom Lane Reviewed-by: Alvaro Herrera, Thomas Kellerer, Tom Lane Backpatch-through: 12
-rw-r--r--doc/src/sgml/func.sgml18
1 files changed, 18 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/func.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/func.sgml
index 79e97840fb8..7ba867b1b5c 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/func.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/func.sgml
@@ -16257,6 +16257,24 @@ strict $.track.segments[*].location
</programlisting>
</para>
+ <para>
+ The <literal>.**</literal> accessor can lead to surprising results
+ when using the lax mode. For instance, the following query selects every
+ <literal>HR</literal> value twice:
+<programlisting>
+lax $.**.HR
+</programlisting>
+ This happens because the <literal>.**</literal> accessor selects both
+ the <literal>segments</literal> array and each of its elements, while
+ the <literal>.HR</literal> accessor automatically unwraps arrays when
+ using the lax mode. To avoid surprising results, we recommend using
+ the <literal>.**</literal> accessor only in the strict mode. The
+ following query selects each <literal>HR</literal> value just once:
+<programlisting>
+strict $.**.HR
+</programlisting>
+ </para>
+
</sect3>
<sect3 id="functions-sqljson-path-operators">