SqlAlchemy with Postgres: How can I make a query that checks if a string is in a list inside a json column

[chat...@gmail.com]

Imagine a Postgres JSON column with values like below:

"["user1", "user2"]"

Is there any way to query a postgres JSON (not JSONB) column with SqlAlchemy,like above that checks if the value "user1" is contained in this column?

[Sergey V.]

Use .any():

    session.query(Gizmo).filter(Gizmo.users.any('user1'))

[Jonathan Vanasco]

I'm not sure, but AFAIK, this type of search isn't *easily* doable in PostgreSQL. The json and jsonb operators and functions are really targeting "object literals" style data, not lists. 

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/functions-json.html

In the past, I think one could search against the column like text and match/regex out a list value like `"user1"` - but that didn't work right.

This type of search is possible with advanced PostgreSQL queries, by using the functions like json_array_elements on a field and joining against that. That's really not within the scope of SQLAlchemy or this list though, and you'll have better luck search (or asking) on Stack Overflow.  There are a handful of questions and solutions there on this topic.

Once you can figure out the PostgreSQL queries to accomplish what you want, this list can help you convert it to SQLAlchemy if you have trouble.

[Simon King]

For what it's worth, I think the "?" operator would work for this with
JSONB, but not with JSON:

postgres=# select '["user1", "user2"]'::jsonb ? 'user1';
?column?
----------
t
(1 row)

postgres=# select '["user1", "user2"]'::jsonb ? 'user2';
?column?
----------
t
(1 row)

postgres=# select '["user1", "user2"]'::jsonb ? 'user3';
?column?
----------
f
(1 row)


SQLAlchemy surfaces the "?" operator as <column>.has_key

https://docs.sqlalchemy.org/en/14/dialects/postgresql.html#sqlalchemy.dialects.postgresql.JSONB.Comparator.has_key

https://github.com/sqlalchemy/sqlalchemy/blob/main/lib/sqlalchemy/dialects/postgresql/json.py#L33

Simon

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[Jonathan Vanasco]

I believer some of the newer jsonb operators would work well for this too. But for json, sigh...