---
title: JSON Arrays
noindex: true
---

<Danger>
  **Legacy Docs:** This page describes our legacy API. It will be deprecated in
  a future version. Please use the [v2 API](/) where possible.
</Danger>

## Basic Usage

When dealing with JSON arrays, the array elements are “flattened” so that each
element can be searched individually. This means that if a JSON array is
encountered, each element in the array is treated as a separate value and
indexed accordingly. For example, given the following JSON structure:

```json
{
  "metadata": {
    "colors": ["red", "green", "blue"]
  }
}
```

The JSON array in the colors field is flattened to emit separate terms for each
color. This allows for individual search queries like:

<CodeGroup>
```sql Function Syntax
SELECT description, metadata
FROM mock_items
WHERE id @@@ paradedb.term('metadata.colors' , 'blue')
OR id @@@ paradedb.term('metadata.colors', 'red');
```
```sql JSON Syntax
SELECT description, metadata
FROM mock_items
WHERE id @@@
'{
    "term": {
        "field": "metadata.colors",
        "value": "blue"
    }
}'::jsonb
OR id @@@
'{
    "term": {
        "field": "metadata.colors",
        "value": "red"
    }
}'::jsonb;
```
</CodeGroup>