OBJECT_CONSTRUCT¶

Syntax¶

OBJECT_CONSTRUCT( [<key1>, <value1> [, <keyN>, <valueN> ...]] )

OBJECT_CONSTRUCT( * )

Returns¶

The data type of the returned value is OBJECT.

Usage Notes¶

• The function accepts either:

  • A sequence of zero or more key-value pairs (where keys are strings, and values are of any type).

  • An asterisk. When invoked with an asterisk, the object is constructed using the attribute names as keys and the associated tuple values as values. See the examples below.

• If the key or value is NULL (i.e. SQL NULL), the key-value pair is omitted from the resulting object. A key-value pair consisting of a not-null string as key and a JSON NULL as value (i.e. PARSE_JSON(‘NULL’)) is not omitted.

• The constructed object does not necessarily preserve the original order of the key-value pairs.

• In many contexts, you can use an OBJECT constant (also called an OBJECT literal) instead of the OBJECT_CONSTRUCT function.

Examples¶

This shows how to construct a simple object:

SELECT OBJECT_CONSTRUCT('a',1,'b','BBBB', 'c',null);
+----------------------------------------------+
| OBJECT_CONSTRUCT('A',1,'B','BBBB', 'C',NULL) |
|----------------------------------------------|
| {                                            |
|   "a": 1,                                    |
|   "b": "BBBB"                                |
| }                                            |
+----------------------------------------------+

This example uses * to get the attribute name and the value from the FROM clause:

CREATE TABLE demo_table_1 (province VARCHAR, created_date DATE);
INSERT INTO demo_table_1 (province, created_date) VALUES
    ('Manitoba', '2020-01-18'::DATE),
    ('Alberta', '2020-01-19'::DATE);

SELECT province, created_date
    FROM demo_table_1
    ORDER BY province;
+----------+--------------+
| PROVINCE | CREATED_DATE |
|----------+--------------|
| Alberta  | 2020-01-19   |
| Manitoba | 2020-01-18   |
+----------+--------------+

SELECT OBJECT_CONSTRUCT(*) AS oc
    FROM demo_table_1
    ORDER BY oc['PROVINCE'];
+---------------------------------+
| OC                              |
|---------------------------------|
| {                               |
|   "CREATED_DATE": "2020-01-19", |
|   "PROVINCE": "Alberta"         |
| }                               |
| {                               |
|   "CREATED_DATE": "2020-01-18", |
|   "PROVINCE": "Manitoba"        |
| }                               |
+---------------------------------+

This is another example using *. In this case, attribute names are not specified, so Snowflake uses “COLUMN1”, “COLUMN2”, etc.:

SELECT OBJECT_CONSTRUCT(*) FROM VALUES(1,'x'), (2,'y');
+---------------------+
| OBJECT_CONSTRUCT(*) |
|---------------------|
| {                   |
|   "COLUMN1": 1,     |
|   "COLUMN2": "x"    |
| }                   |
| {                   |
|   "COLUMN1": 2,     |
|   "COLUMN2": "y"    |
| }                   |
+---------------------+

This example uses SQL NULL and the string ‘null’:

SELECT OBJECT_CONSTRUCT('Key_One', PARSE_JSON('NULL'), 'Key_Two', NULL, 'Key_Three', 'null') as obj;
+-----------------------+
| OBJ                   |
|-----------------------|
| {                     |
|   "Key_One": null,    |
|   "Key_Three": "null" |
| }                     |
+-----------------------+

OBJECT_CONSTRUCT supports expressions and queries to add, modify, or omit values from the JSON object.

SELECT OBJECT_CONSTRUCT(
    'foo', 1234567,
    'dataset_size', (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM demo_table_1),
    'distinct_province', (SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT province) FROM demo_table_1),
    'created_date_seconds', extract(epoch_seconds, created_date)
    )
    FROM demo_table_1;
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| OBJECT_CONSTRUCT(                                                             |
|     'FOO', 1234567,                                                           |
|     'DATASET_SIZE', (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM DEMO_TABLE_1),                      |
|     'DISTINCT_PROVINCE', (SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT PROVINCE) FROM DEMO_TABLE_1), |
|     'CREATED_DATE_SECONDS', EXTRACT(EPOCH_SECONDS, CREATED_DATE)              |
|     )                                                                         |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| {                                                                             |
|   "created_date_seconds": 1579305600,                                         |
|   "dataset_size": 2,                                                          |
|   "distinct_province": 2,                                                     |
|   "foo": 1234567                                                              |
| }                                                                             |
| {                                                                             |
|   "created_date_seconds": 1579392000,                                         |
|   "dataset_size": 2,                                                          |
|   "distinct_province": 2,                                                     |
|   "foo": 1234567                                                              |
| }                                                                             |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+