It is as wrong as having XML at the database. If you are supporting applications that use XML for communicating data structures, then there can be no logical difference in supporting JSON or YAML. Whether you like it or not, SQL Server now has the built-in tools to fully-support XML. We have, in effect, 'swallowed the camel' already.

Well done with this one, Ric. I must admit that I'd been developing mine for some time as well (I've a YAML shredder that had to do JSON as well) and didn't spot that you'd published your JSON shredder before I did mine at 'Consuming JSON Strings in SQL Server' on Simple-Talk[/url]. (strangely, Google never popped it up)

I suppose it should be easy to do a CLR version, since the .NET library actually has two JSON shredders, though I believe that one is deprecated. the other one seems a bit 'special-purpose', and I haven't worked out how this helps to get a result that can then be put into a table.