SeaQL/sea-orm · error

Failed to get json array

Error message

Failed to get json array

What it means

This panic is raised when sea-orm cannot decode a JSON[]/JSONB[] array column into Option<Vec<serde_json::Value>> (gated on `with-json` plus `json-array` or `postgres-array`). try_get fails when the wire type is not a recognized json array, or the compiled sqlx build cannot decode arrays of json. The `.expect` makes the failure a hard panic during row conversion.

Source

Thrown at sea-orm-sync/src/driver/sqlx_postgres.rs:653

                                            .collect(),
                                    )
                                }),
                        ),

                        #[cfg(feature = "with-json")]
                        "JSON" | "JSONB" => Value::Json(
                            row.try_get::<Option<serde_json::Value>, _>(c.ordinal())
                                .expect("Failed to get json")
                                .map(Box::new),
                        ),
                        #[cfg(all(
                            feature = "with-json",
                            any(feature = "json-array", feature = "postgres-array")
                        ))]
                        "JSON[]" | "JSONB[]" => Value::Array(
                            sea_query::ArrayType::Json,
                            row.try_get::<Option<Vec<serde_json::Value>>, _>(c.ordinal())
                                .expect("Failed to get json array")
                                .map(|vals| {
                                    Box::new(
                                        vals.into_iter()
                                            .map(|val| Value::Json(Some(Box::new(val))))
                                            .collect(),
                                    )
                                }),
                        ),

                        #[cfg(feature = "with-ipnetwork")]
                        "INET" | "CIDR" => Value::IpNetwork(
                            row.try_get::<Option<ipnetwork::IpNetwork>, _>(c.ordinal())
                                .expect("Failed to get ip address"),
                        ),
                        #[cfg(feature = "with-ipnetwork")]
                        "INET[]" | "CIDR[]" => Value::Array(
                            sea_query::ArrayType::IpNetwork,
                            row.try_get::<Option<Vec<ipnetwork::IpNetwork>>, _>(c.ordinal())

View on GitHub (pinned to e29bcd1b41)

Solutions

1. Confirm the true column type (`SELECT pg_typeof(col)`); if it is text[], change the schema to jsonb[] or decode as strings.
2. Enable `json-array` (or `postgres-array`) and `with-json` on the sea-orm dependency in every crate that compiles it.
3. Cast in SQL when types differ: `SELECT col::jsonb[] FROM t`.
4. Keep one sqlx version across the workspace (`cargo tree -d`) so array decoders match.

Example fix

// before
CREATE TABLE t (docs text[]);

// after
ALTER TABLE t ALTER COLUMN docs TYPE jsonb[] USING docs::jsonb[];

// Ensure the column is a true json/jsonb array, not text[]:
let t = db.query_one(Statement::from_string(
    DatabaseBackend::Postgres,
    "SELECT format_type(a.atttypid, a.atttypmod) FROM pg_attribute a WHERE a.attrelid = 't'::regclass AND a.attname = 'docs'",
)).await?;
// expect "jsonb[]"

// Fall back to text decoding and parse manually if the schema stores JSON in text[]:
let rows = db.query_all(Statement::from_string(
    DatabaseBackend::Postgres,
    "SELECT docs::text[] FROM t",
)).await?;
let docs: Vec<serde_json::Value> = rows[0].try_get::<Vec<String>, _>(0)?
    .into_iter()
    .map(|s| serde_json::from_str(&s))
    .collect::<Result<_, _>>()?;

When it happens

Trigger: Selecting a `json[]` or `jsonb[]` column with the array feature flags enabled but sqlx built without the corresponding array support; the column actually contains `text[]` holding JSON strings rather than a true jsonb[]; type OID for the array not recognized by the driver.

Common situations: Storing JSON documents in text[] instead of jsonb[] and expecting typed decoding; feature-flag mismatch (`json-array` on sea-orm but not propagated to sqlx); migrating data where the column type changed from text[] to jsonb[] without updating the entity.

Understand the failure class

Background: Type mismatch errors: IllegalArgumentException, TypeError and type guards across 150 open-source libraries — this error's family across 150 libraries.

Related errors

• Failed to get json
• Failed to get ip address array
• Failed to get mac address array
• Failed to get numeric array
• Failed to get oid

AI-assisted analysis of SeaQL/sea-orm@e29bcd1b41 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/139d0132a685d0d4. Report an issue: GitHub.