# Parse JSON array

**URL:** <https://community.dynatrace.com/t/parse-json-array/40003>\
**Category:** DQL\
**Tags:** dql, json\
**Created:** [May 31, 2023, 2:00pm UTC](https://community.dynatrace.com/t/parse-json-array/40003 "2023-05-31T14:00:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stefan\_eggersto](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/dynatrace/user_avatar/community.dynatrace.com/stefan_eggersto/32/34114_2.png) [@stefan\_eggersto](https://community.dynatrace.com/u/stefan_eggersto)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2023, 2:00pm UTC](https://community.dynatrace.com/t/parse-json-array/40003/1 "2023-05-31T14:00:58Z")

</div>

Hi all, is it possible in DQL to&nbsp;`parse`&nbsp;a JSON string that contains an array on the top level?  
I can parse a top-level JSON object like

```p-rich_text_section
data record(value = "{\"hello\" : \"world\"}")<br>| parse value, "JSON:json"

```

 ![stefan_eggersto_0-1685541605234.png](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/dynatrace/original/3X/c/6/c668b28ee066051585f466d6e1c0653b58180bc3.png)

But I fail to parse a top-level JSON array:

```auto
data record(value = "[{\"hello\" : \"world\"}]")<br>| parse value, "JSON:json"

```

 ![stefan_eggersto_1-1685541634574.png](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/dynatrace/original/2X/e/ed080d8e5bdab7750551ca36244d401960628a3b.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![educampver](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/dynatrace/user_avatar/community.dynatrace.com/educampver/32/29917_2.png) [@educampver](https://community.dynatrace.com/u/educampver)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2023, 6:42am UTC](https://community.dynatrace.com/t/parse-json-array/40003/2 "2023-06-01T06:42:39Z")

</div>

Hi Stefan, you have to use [JSON\_ARRAY](https://www.dynatrace.com/support/help/shortlink/dpl-json-arrays) for that:

```markup
data record(value = "[{\"hello\" : \"world\"}]")
| parse value, "JSON_ARRAY:greeting"
| fields greeting

```