How to handle inner Json when using JsonOutputter - azure-cosmosdb

Question

I'm converting some csv files into Json using the JsonOutputter. In the csv files I have a field containing Json like this (pipe character is delimiter):
...|{ "type":"Point", "coordinates":[ 18.7726, 74.5091 ] }|...
When it's output to Json, the result looks like this:
"Location": "{ \"type\":\"Point\", \"coordinates\":[ 18.7726, 74.5091 ] }"
I would like to get rid of the outer quotes to make the Json look like this:
"Location": { "type":"Point", "coordinates":[ 18.7726, 74.5091 ] }
What is the best way to accomplish this? The output Json will be stored in Cosmos DB, so I guess the "cleaning up" of the Json could be done either in U-SQL or in Cosmos DB?

Answer 1

The sample outputter is only generating flat JSON. Since we do not have a JSON datatype, any string value has to be escaped to be a string value.
You can write your own custom Outputter that for example takes SqlMap instances for nested values and output them as nested JSON, or - if you know that some strings in the rowsets are really JSON and not just strings, serialize them without the quotes.

Answer 2

If JsonOutputter is not the only choice to that
,we could covert csv file to Json with our custom code.
I test it with following csv file.
number|Location
1|{ "type":"Point", "coordinates":[ 13.7726, 73.5091 ] }
2|{ "type":"Point", "coordinates":[ 14.7726, 74.5091 ] }
Please have a try to use the following code, it works correctly on my side.
var lines = File.ReadAllText(#"C:\Tom\tomtest.csv").Replace("\r", "").Split('\n');
var csv = lines.Select(l => l.Split('|')).ToList();
var headers = csv[0];
var dicts = csv.Skip(1).Select(row => headers.Zip(row, Tuple.Create).ToDictionary(p => p.Item1, p => p.Item2)).ToArray().Select(x=>new
{
number = x["number"],
location = JObject.Parse(x["Location"])
});
string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(dicts);
Console.WriteLine(json);
Test result: