SQL Server - OPENJSON error - JSON text is not properly formatted - json

Question

Azure SQL Server 2017 -
We have a table dbo.MailArchive with a field called Mail_Body which contains the body of an email. The data always looks like this from record to record, just with different numbers, and Status message:
Status: Completed
Successful actions count: 250
Page load count: 250
But copy/pasting the above to test with will make it seem like there's no issue. YOu can use this to replicate the problem:
DECLARE #YourString varchar(8000) = 'Status: Completed
Successful actions count: 250
Page load count: 250' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10);
SELECT CONCAT('{"', REPLACE(REPLACE(#YourString, ': ', '":"'), CHAR(13) + CHAR(10), '","'), '"}')
Further, this is what the body of the email looks like if I view it in Word with hidden characters turned on:
This is the format that the data gets exported to the database in.
I'm trying to use OPENJSON to parse this data by line break, as such:
SELECT Mail_Body,
j.*
FROM dbo.MailArchive d
CROSS APPLY OPENJSON (CONCAT('{"', REPLACE(REPLACE(d.Mail_Body, ': ', '":"'), CHAR(13) + CHAR(10), '","'), '"}'))
WITH (
Status varchar(100) '$.Status',
Successful_Actions_Count int '$."Successfull actions count"',
Request_Count int '$."Request count"'
) j
I get the following error when executing this:
JSON text is not properly formatted. Unexpected character ',' is found
at position 246.
Based on some advice I've received thus far, I'm thinking it might have something to do with that line break at the end of the body. But I can't figure out the right syntax to account for it.

Answer 1

This is an expensive fix, as REVERSE isn't cheap, but you could use it and PATINDEX to find the first characters that aren't a line break or carriage return, remove them, and then parse that:
DECLARE #YourString varchar(8000) = 'Status: Completed
Successful actions count: 250
Page load count: 250' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10);
DECLARE #PI varchar(7) = '%[^' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + ']%';
SELECT j.Status,
j.Successful_Actions_Count, --NULL as not in sample data
j.Request_Count --NULL as not in sample data
FROM (VALUES(#YourString))V(YS)
CROSS APPLY(VALUES(REVERSE(V.YS),PATINDEX(#PI,REVERSE(V.YS)))) PI(SY,I)
CROSS APPLY(VALUES(REVERSE(STUFF(PI.SY,1,PI.I,''))))S(FixedString)
CROSS APPLY OPENJSON (CONCAT('{"', REPLACE(REPLACE(S.FixedString, ': ', '":"'), CHAR(13) + CHAR(10), '","'), '"}'))
WITH (Status varchar(100) '$.Status',
Successful_Actions_Count int '$."Successfull actions count"',
Request_Count int '$."Request count"') j;
This assumes that there could be 0 to many sets of CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) at the end of the string. If it is only ever 2 sets, simply using SUBSTRING and LEN would be easier.