The Parse JSON tool is used exclusively to parse JSON column and is almost always used just after an API tool. You can parse simple JSON and nested JSON with the Parse JSON tool.

Parsing JSON can be tricky. It requires that you have more or less than same structure throughout your JSON column - which can be hard to spot with a lot of data. Reach out to us if you’d like us to support.

The Parse JSON tool transforms JSON like this:

{"name":"John", "age":30, "car":null}

To columns like this:

A simple example of parsing the JSON above in Less

Whenever you see this data type you can be certain you need to use the Parse JSON tool. You cannot store data with this data type so either you need to remove the column or parse it.

The JSON data type

However, JSON can also be in simple text/string columns.

JSON in a string/text column

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Configuration

The Parse JSON tool has of three required input.

1

Select ID Column

If your JSON contains nested JSON (see examples below) it can create multiple rows for each unique row. To identify unique row, you have to select an ID column. Use the Row ID tool to generate one if you don’t have it in your dataset.

2

Select JSON Column

Select the column containing the JSON you would like to parse.

3

Input the number of nested JSON levels you want to parse

Input a number representing the number of JSON levels you want to parse. JSON can contain nested information - like the cars object below. You can parse all the way “down” through your JSON as long as the nested JSON objects have unique names.

    [
    {
        "name": "John",
        "age": 30,
        "cars": [
        {
            "make": "Toyota",
            "model": "Camry"
        },
        {
            "make": "Honda",
            "model": "CR-V"
        }
        ]
    },
    {
        "name": "Sarah",
        "age": 28,
        "cars": [
        {
            "make": "Tesla",
            "model": "Model 3"
        }
        ]
    },
    {
        "name": "Michael",
        "age": 45,
        "cars": [
        {
            "make": "BMW",
            "model": "X5"
        },
        {
            "make": "Ford",
            "model": "Mustang"
        }
        ]
    }
    ]

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When To Use

The functionality of the Parse JSON tool is limited. Simply use it whenever you want to parse JSON columns to regular tabular (rows and columns) data.

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Examples