SQL Server 2017 Developer's Guide

Formatting a JSON output as a single object

The default JSON output is enclosed within square brackets, which means the output is an array. If you want to format it as a single object instead of an array, use the WITHOUT_ARRAY_WRAPPER option.

Even if a query returns only one row, SQL Server will format it by default as a JSON array, as in the following example:

SELECT PersonID, FullName, EmailAddress, PhoneNumber  
FROM Application.People WHERE PersonID = 2 FOR JSON AUTO; 

Although only one row is returned, the output is still an array (with a single element):

[
  {
    "PersonID":2,
    "FullName":"Kayla Woodcock",
    "EmailAddress":"[e-mail]",
    "PhoneNumber":"[phone]"
  }
]

To return a single object instead of an array, you can ...