SQL to JSON datetime modifications

SQL to JSON datetime modifications.sql

DECLARE @sqlDate datetime2 = '2017-03-28 12:45:00.1234567'

 

DECLARE @jsonData nvarchar(max) = N'{ "createDate" : "2017-03-28T12:45:00.000Z" }'
		,@newDate datetime2(3) = '2017-03-28T12:48:00.123Z'

-- Let's start out modifying our data by replacing the value completely
SELECT JSON_VALUE(@jsonData, '$.createDate')

-- If we want to pass in a perfectly formatted JSON string, then it's pretty easy
SELECT JSON_MODIFY(@jsonData, '$.createDate', '2017-03-28T12:48:00.123Z')
-- Output: { "createDate" : "2017-03-28T12:48:00.123Z" }

-- If we want to pass in a SQL datetime2 value, say like what we have stored in @newDate, then things get a little messy.
-- The JSON_MODIFY function requires the third argument to be the nvarchar datatype.  This means
-- we need to get our SQL datetime2 into a valid JSON string first.  

-- If we use FOR JSON PATH to create the JSON date from the SQL datetime2, things get ugly because 
-- FOR JSON PATH always creates a property : value combination
SELECT JSON_MODIFY(@jsonData, '$.createDate', (SELECT @newDate as newDate FOR JSON PATH))
-- Output: { "createDate" : [{"newDate":"2017-03-28T12:48:00.123"}] }

-- In order to only pass the JSON datetime into the value for the "createDate" property, we need to 
-- use the CONVERT style number 127 to convert our dateTime to a JSON format
SELECT JSON_MODIFY(@jsonData, '$.createDate', (SELECT CONVERT(nvarchar, @newDate, 127)))
-- Output: { "createDate" : "2017-03-28T12:48:00.123" }

-- But what happened to our "Z" indicating UTC?  
-- We of course need to specify the AT TIME ZONE again:
SELECT JSON_MODIFY(@jsonData, '$.createDate', (SELECT CONVERT(nvarchar, @newDate AT TIME ZONE 'UTC', 127)))
--Output: { "createDate" : "2017-03-28T12:48:00.123Z" }