On PostgreSQL 9.3.4, I have a JSON type column called "person" and the data stored in it is in the format {dogs: [{breed: <>, name: <>}, {breed: <>, name: <>}]}. I want to retrieve the breed of dog at index 0. Here are the two queries I ran:
Doesn't work
db=> select person->'dogs'->>0->'breed' from people where id = 77;
ERROR: operator does not exist: text -> unknown
LINE 1: select person->'dogs'->>0->'bree...
^
HINT: No operator matches the given name and argument type(s). You might need to add explicit type casts.
Works
select (person->'dogs'->>0)::json->'breed' from es_config_app_solutiondraft where id = 77;
?column?
-----------
"westie"
(1 row)
Why is the type casting necessary? Isn't it inefficient? Am I doing something wrong or is this necessary for postgres JSON support?
