Remove jsonb_build_object from the output

Question

I am creating a jsonb object using jsonb_build_object in PostgreSQL. The problem is that it adds jsonb_build_object column in the output. Please refer to the screenshot and query below:

     select  jsonb_build_object(
                    'country_name', country_name,
                    'country_code', country_code,
                    'currency_code', currency_code
                )
     from table

Is there any way to exclude jsonb_build_object from output?

Answer 1

As pointed out by @jjanes, that's not PostgreSQL doing it, it's your client application or library fetching results of your query into a json structure where it injects the column/field name as a top-level key in order to be able to accommodate multiple columns in one structure.

You didn't specify how you wish to call the field holding the ouput of that function, so PostgreSQL just named it after the function, hence the jsonb_build_object top-level key, but according to the db it's the field/column name, not an internal part of the result. You can see what it looks like to the DB here: demo

create table your_table as select 
  'Canada' as country_name, 
  'CA' as country_code, 
  'CAD' as currency_code;

select  jsonb_build_object(
                    'country_name', country_name,
                    'country_code', country_code,
                    'currency_code', currency_code
                )
from your_table;

jsonb_build_object
{"country_code": "CA", "country_name": "Canada", "currency_code": "CAD"}

Notice that it's in the header, not in the actual field. To get rid of it, you need to peel that off in your client/app. It would be helpful if you updated the question to specify what client/library+language you're using and show how you obtained these records.