If you use SQLcl to query Oracle Database, you might be aware of the SET SQLFORMAT json option, that makes query results come back as JSON documents.

But there’s also a json-formatted option, which returns the results in a more human readable format.

Example

Here’s an example to demonstrate:

SET SQLFORMAT json-formatted;
SELECT * FROM regions;

Result:

{
  "results" : [
    {
      "columns" : [
        {
          "name" : "REGION_ID",
          "type" : "NUMBER"
        },
        {
          "name" : "REGION_NAME",
          "type" : "VARCHAR2"
        }
      ],
      "items" : [
        {
          "region_id" : 1,
          "region_name" : "Europe"
        },
        {
          "region_id" : 2,
          "region_name" : "Americas"
        },
        {
          "region_id" : 3,
          "region_name" : "Asia"
        },
        {
          "region_id" : 4,
          "region_name" : "Middle East and Africa"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

As a comparison, here it is using the json setting (i.e. without the result being prettified):

SET SQLFORMAT json;
SELECT * FROM regions;

Result:

{"results":[{"columns":[{"name":"REGION_ID","type":"NUMBER"},{"name":"REGION_NAME","type":"VARCHAR2"}],"items":
[
{"region_id":1,"region_name":"Europe"}
,{"region_id":2,"region_name":"Americas"}
,{"region_id":3,"region_name":"Asia"}
,{"region_id":4,"region_name":"Middle East and Africa"}
]}]}