Transform items of an array into Columns in Azure Data Factory

Question

consider the following json structure where there are multiple arrays eg question and polls ![180666-image.png][1] and the desired output is a flat table like structure where each question and polls array data is represented as a separate column for eg questions array of a particular user has 2 records such that array[0] will become data for column Ques1 and array[1] will become the data for column Ques2 ![180734-image.png][2] Is there any way to achieve this in azure data factory data flow ? { "email": "xxxxxxxx1@123.com", "questions": [ { "questionid": 6268255, "createtimestamp": "2015-05-19T11:55:12-07:00", "content": "sdfsd password?", "answer": { "createtimestamp": "2015-05-19T11:57:12-07:00", "content": "asdfsd", "presenterid": 813717, "presentername": "a reerXXXXX", "privacy": "Private" } }, { "questionid": 6268257, "createtimestamp": "2015-05-19T11:58:12-07:00", "content": "asfdfdftexts directly?", "answer": { "createtimestamp": "2015-05-19T11:59:59-07:00", "content": "sdfsdfsf for an event", "presenterid": 813706, "presentername": "aeee XXXXX", "privacy": "Private" } } ], "polls": [ { "pollid": 16818601, "pollsubmittedtimestamp": "2015-05-19T11:45:12-07:00", "pollquestionid": 6268336, "pollquestion": "poll 1", "pollanswers": [ "poll 1 ans" ] }, { "pollid": 16818630, "pollsubmittedtimestamp": "2015-05-19T11:47:12-07:00", "pollquestionid": 6268358, "pollquestion": "pol 2 solutions?", "pollanswers": [ "Unfamiliar" ] } ] } [1]: /api/attachments/180666-image.png?platform=QnA [2]: /api/attachments/180734-image.png?platform=QnA

Answer 1

Hi anonymous user ,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A platform and thankyou for posting your query.

As I understand your query , you have a JSON input which you want to Load it as a table content in Azure SQL DB. In this process, you want to transform array items into separate columns in the table. Please correct me if my understanding is wrong.

In order to achieve this requirement , I would recommend to use Data flow which is the best solution for transforming data using ADF. Here are the steps you need to follow.

1. Upload the Json file in ADLS and create a linked service and dataset pointing to the same file . Import schema during this process
2. Create a new Dataflow and In Source transformation , use the above created dataset . Go to source option, Under JSON settings, select document form as 'Array of documents'

3. Use Surrogate key transformation to create an identity column 'Id'

4. Use Select transformation to bring columns in correct sequence

5. Use Flatten transformation to flatten the array 'Question'

6. Use Sink transformation with Azure SQL DB dataset to load the data into SQL table

Hope this will help. Please let us know if any further queries.

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Answer 2

Hi anonymous user,

Thank you for the ask. You can achieve that by using the CopyActivity in the Pipeline or with the DataFlow.

• In the CopyActivity --> Mapping tab, there is a Collection Reference option, by which you can get multiple lines. Please see the documentation below:
  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/data-factory/copy-activity-schema-and-type-mapping#hierarchical-source-to-tabular-sink
• or in the Dataflow, you can use the Flatten transformation. Please see the documentation below:
  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/data-factory/data-flow-flatten

Hope this helps! Thanks :)