Use two single quotes instead of double quotes in JPath expressions

Properties
PC0014 Warning Design Code Fix Ignore Obsolete

JPath filter expressions in AL use string comparisons to match JSON values. Developers familiar with standard JSON or JPath syntax naturally reach for double quotes to delimit string values inside the path — "activation_status", "John". In AL, the JPath evaluator expects single quotes around string values inside filter expressions.

Ensure that the selected expression contains ’ (single quotation mark) and not " (double quotation mark) to decorate the string value.

— JsonToken.SelectToken(Text, var JsonToken) Method on Microsoft Learn

When a JPath expression contains double quotes, SelectToken and SelectTokens fail silently — the method returns false and the result token remains empty, with no runtime error to indicate what went wrong. Replace double quotes with two single quotes (''), which AL interprets as a literal single quote character.

Example

procedure GetAttributeValue(ApiResponse: JsonToken)
var
    Result: JsonToken;
begin
    ApiResponse.SelectToken('$.custom_attributes[?(@.attribute_code == "activation_status")].value', Result); // Use two single quotes instead of double quotes in JPath expressions [PC0014]
end;

Replace the double quotes with two single quotes:

procedure GetAttributeValue(ApiResponse: JsonToken)
var
    Result: JsonToken;
begin
    ApiResponse.SelectToken('$.custom_attributes[?(@.attribute_code == ''activation_status'')].value', Result);
end;

When the diagnostic is reported

  • A string literal passed as the Path parameter to SelectToken or SelectTokens contains a double quote (") character.
  • The rule applies to calls on JsonToken, JsonObject, and JsonArray.

See also