Update a JSON property.

Create updated JSON text with JSON_MODIFY.

T-SQL snippet.sql
SELECT JSON_VALUE(JSON_MODIFY(N'{"theme":"light"}', '$.theme', 'dark'), '$.theme');

Expected output EXAMPLE

dark

Details

Requires SQL Server 2022 or later. Run in an empty scratch database in SSMS or sqlcmd. Result rows below use | between columns, without headers; client display formatting may differ. JSON_MODIFY returns new text; persist it with UPDATE when working with a stored column. Use a fresh scratch database; the example creates any tables it needs.

✓ Verified

Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS · · SQL Server 16.0.4295.3 · libc6 2.39-0ubuntu8.9; psycopg 3.2.10; pymssql 2.3.8

Test inputs, results and environment

The exact published code ran in a dedicated Linux test container with prepared inputs. Snippet process uid 65534 with a read-only root filesystem and temporary working files. Database services use a private internal Docker network without published ports. Fresh scratch schema/database for each case; test database administrator credentials are confined to these disposable services. Fixtures and output records are isolated from the application database. Testing covers this example and its stated checks, not every input, operating system, or runtime version. The Linux container shares its host's kernel; this is not a native Windows test.

Architecture / host kernel
x86_64 / 6.18.54.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
Snippet identity / locale
uid=65534, gid=65534 (unprivileged process) / C.UTF-8
Interpreter invocation
Execute the exact SQL in a fresh database/schema; serialize result rows with | separators
Container image ID
sha256:ec91410a8f6ec3e985830b5e3a0560306d36f8c1c5ccd91a6699abe707123fa3
Code SHA-256
9775251df000c9b1a4770aa891fa389c31d839f8a029b40a0c0cff28263169f8
Dependencies
libc6 2.39-0ubuntu8.9; psycopg 3.2.10; pymssql 2.3.8

Test input setup

These are the prepared inputs used by the test harness. See Details above for the prerequisites and how to run this example.

# No input files required.

Observed standard output

dark

Exit code: 0. Standard error: empty. Validation: Exact stdout comparison. System-dependent values above are one recorded run.