Returning Invalid syntax for type json on arrays

When your column is type json and you try and insert a JSON array, you get the following error:

{ [error: invalid input syntax for type json]
  length: 154,
  name: 'error',
  severity: 'ERROR',
  code: '22P02',
  detail: 'Expected string or "}", but found "1".',
  hint: undefined,
  position: undefined,
  internalPosition: undefined,
  internalQuery: undefined,
  where: 'JSON data, line 1: {1...',
  file: 'json.c',
  line: '665',
  routine: 'report_parse_error' }

For example, this works in PSQL:

insert into my_table ( data ) values ( '[1,2,3]' );

But this returns an error in node-pg:

client.query('insert into my_table ( data ) values ( $1 )', [ [1,2,3] ], function( error ){
  /* ERROR */
});

[booo]

We convert javascript arrays into postgres arrays. If you stringify your input array it should work:

client.query('INSERT INTO my_table (data) VALUES ($1)', [ JSON.stringify([1,2,3])], handler);

We don’t now the column type in advance so we can’t do a auto conversions of the array.

[tamlyn]

Would it make sense for node-postgres to intercept this error and augment it with something like Are you inserting an array into a JSON column? See <link to docs>? Helpful error messages make for a nice developer experience.