Previously, there was an inconsistency across json/jsonb operators that
operate on datums containing JSON arrays -- only some operators
supported negative array count-from-the-end subscripting. Specifically,
only a new-to-9.5 jsonb deletion operator had support (the new "jsonb -
integer" operator). This inconsistency seemed likely to be
counter-intuitive to users. To fix, allow all places where the user can
supply an integer subscript to accept a negative subscript value,
including path-orientated operators and functions, as well as other
extraction operators. This will need to be called out as an
incompatibility in the 9.5 release notes, since it's possible that users
are relying on certain established extraction operators changed here
yielding NULL in the event of a negative subscript.
For the json type, this requires adding a way of cheaply getting the
total JSON array element count ahead of time when parsing arrays with a
negative subscript involved, necessitating an ad-hoc lex and parse.
This is followed by a "conversion" from a negative subscript to its
equivalent positive-wise value using the count. From there on, it's as
if a positive-wise value was originally provided.
Note that there is still a minor inconsistency here across jsonb
deletion operators. Unlike the aforementioned new "-" deletion operator
that accepts an integer on its right hand side, the new "#-" path
orientated deletion variant does not throw an error when it appears like
an array subscript (input that could be recognized by as an integer
literal) is being used on an object, which is wrong-headed. The reason
for not being stricter is that it could be the case that an object pair
happens to have a key value that looks like an integer; in general,
these two possibilities are impossible to differentiate with rhs path
text[] argument elements. However, we still don't allow the "#-"
path-orientated deletion operator to perform array-style subscripting.
Rather, we just return the original left operand value in the event of a
negative subscript (which seems analogous to how the established
"jsonb/json #> text[]" path-orientated operator may yield NULL in the
event of an invalid subscript).
In passing, make SetArrayPath() stricter about not accepting cases where
there is trailing non-numeric garbage bytes rather than a clean NUL
byte. This means, for example, that strings like "10e10" are now not
accepted as an array subscript of 10 by some new-to-9.5 path-orientated
jsonb operators (e.g. the new #- operator). Finally, remove dead code
for jsonb subscript deletion; arguably, this should have been done in
commit b81c7b409.
Peter Geoghegan and Andrew Dunstan
We expose a function IsValidJsonNumber that internally calls the lexer
for json numbers. That allows us to use the same test everywhere,
instead of inventing a broken test for hstore conversions. The new
function is also used in datum_to_json, replacing the code that is now
moved to the new function.
Backpatch to 9.3 where hstore_to_json_loose was introduced.
The new format accepts exactly the same data as the json type. However, it is
stored in a format that does not require reparsing the orgiginal text in order
to process it, making it much more suitable for indexing and other operations.
Insignificant whitespace is discarded, and the order of object keys is not
preserved. Neither are duplicate object keys kept - the later value for a given
key is the only one stored.
The new type has all the functions and operators that the json type has,
with the exception of the json generation functions (to_json, json_agg etc.)
and with identical semantics. In addition, there are operator classes for
hash and btree indexing, and two classes for GIN indexing, that have no
equivalent in the json type.
This feature grew out of previous work by Oleg Bartunov and Teodor Sigaev, which
was intended to provide similar facilities to a nested hstore type, but which
in the end proved to have some significant compatibility issues.
Authors: Oleg Bartunov, Teodor Sigaev, Peter Geoghegan and Andrew Dunstan.
Review: Andres Freund
The new JSON API uses a bit of an unusual typedef scheme, where for
example OkeysState is a pointer to okeysState. And that's not applied
consistently either. Change that to the more usual PostgreSQL style
where struct typedefs are upper case, and use pointers explicitly.
The JSON parser is converted into a recursive descent parser, and
exposed for use by other modules such as extensions. The API provides
hooks for all the significant parser event such as the beginning and end
of objects and arrays, and providing functions to handle these hooks
allows for fairly simple construction of a wide variety of JSON
processing functions. A set of new basic processing functions and
operators is also added, which use this API, including operations to
extract array elements, object fields, get the length of arrays and the
set of keys of a field, deconstruct an object into a set of key/value
pairs, and create records from JSON objects and arrays of objects.
Catalog version bumped.
Andrew Dunstan, with some documentation assistance from Merlin Moncure.
