Querying JSON Files

To query complex JSON files, you need to understand the “JSON Data Model”. This section provides a trivial example of querying a sample file that Drill installs.

About the employee.json File

The sample file, employee.json, is packaged in the Foodmart data JAR in Drill’s classpath:

./jars/3rdparty/foodmart-data-json.0.4.jar

The file contains fictitious employee data. Here is a snippet of the file:

{"employee_id":1,"full_name":"Sheri Nowmer","first_name":"Sheri","last_name":"Nowmer","position_id":1,"position_title":"President","store_id":0,"department_id":1,"birth_date":"1961-08-26","hire_date":"1994-12-01 00:00:00.0","end_date":null,"salary":80000.0000,"supervisor_id":0,"education_level":"Graduate Degree","marital_status":"S","gender":"F","management_role":"Senior Management"}

To query a file in a JAR file in the Drill classpath, you need to use the cp (classpath) storage plugin configuration, as shown in the sample query.

Sample Query

Start the Drill shell, and select five rows of data from the employee.json file installed with Drill.

SELECT * FROM cp.`employee.json` LIMIT 5;

The query returns the following results:

|--------------|----------------------------|---------------------|---------------|--------------|----------------------------|-----------|----------------|-------------|------------------------|----------|----------------|----------------------|-----------------|---------|-----------------------|
| employee_id  |         full_name          |     first_name      |   last_name   | position_id  |       position_title       | store_id  | department_id  | birth_date  |       hire_date        |  salary  | supervisor_id  |   education_level    | marital_status  | gender  |    management_role    |
|--------------|----------------------------|---------------------|---------------|--------------|----------------------------|-----------|----------------|-------------|------------------------|----------|----------------|----------------------|-----------------|---------|-----------------------|
| 1            | Sheri Nowmer               | Sheri               | Nowmer        | 1            | President                  | 0         | 1              | 1961-08-26  | 1994-12-01 00:00:00.0  | 80000.0  | 0              | Graduate Degree      | S               | F       | Senior Management     |
| 2            | Derrick Whelply            | Derrick             | Whelply       | 2            | VP Country Manager         | 0         | 1              | 1915-07-03  | 1994-12-01 00:00:00.0  | 40000.0  | 1              | Graduate Degree      | M               | M       | Senior Management     |
| 4            | Michael Spence             | Michael             | Spence        | 2            | VP Country Manager         | 0         | 1              | 1969-06-20  | 1998-01-01 00:00:00.0  | 40000.0  | 1              | Graduate Degree      | S               | M       | Senior Management     |
| 5            | Maya Gutierrez             | Maya                | Gutierrez     | 2            | VP Country Manager         | 0         | 1              | 1951-05-10  | 1998-01-01 00:00:00.0  | 35000.0  | 1              | Bachelors Degree     | M               | F       | Senior Management     |