topic Re: Proc JSON Export Nested JSON in SAS Procedures

Proc JSON Export Nested JSON

CR-Horton — Sat, 14 May 2022 20:21:50 GMT

Hi All,

I am using Proc JSON to output a SAS dataset into JSON format. The first block of JSON below is the default output and the second block is what I am trying to do.

Basic Proc JSON code:
proc json out="path\name.json" pretty nosastags;
export dataset;
run;

Default JSON output:
[
  {
    "category_id": 123,
    "name": "name_example",
    "description": "description_example",
    "page_title": "page_example",
    "meta_description": "meta_example",
    "URL": "url_example"
  }
]
What I need:
[
  {
    "category_id": 123,
    "name": "name_example",
    "description": "description_example",
    "page_title": "page_example",
    "meta_description": "meta_example",
    "URL": {
	"path": "url_example"
	}
  }
]

I have tried various statements within Proc JSON (write values, arrays, objects, etc.) but that doesn't seem to get me what I need. What do I need to do to achieve the output I shared above?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Re: Proc JSON Export Nested JSON

Tom — Sat, 14 May 2022 20:49:06 GMT

Why not just write it yourself? JSON files are just text.

data _null_;
  file "path\name.json" ;
  set have end=eof;
  if _n_=1 then put '[' / ' {' @;
  else put ',{' @;
  put 
    '"category_id":' category_id
  /' ,"name":' name :$quote.
  /' ,"description":' description :$quote.
  /' ,"page_title":' page_title :$quote.
  /' ,"meta_description":' meta_description :$quote.
  /' ,"URL":{"path":' url :$quote. '}'
  /' }'
  ;
  if eof then put ']';
run;

Results

[
 {"category_id":123
 ,"name":"name_example"
 ,"description":"description_example"
 ,"page_title":"page_example"
 ,"meta_description":"meta_example"
 ,"URL":{"path":"url_example" }
 }
]

PS Why place continuation characters at the end of the lines where they are hard for humans to scan?

Re: Proc JSON Export Nested JSON

CR-Horton — Sun, 15 May 2022 18:24:04 GMT

Awesome! Thanks a lot, Tom. Appreciate the quick help.