I have a SQl Server query defined as follows:

SELECT      ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY p.SKU) AS Id,
            p.Id AS ProductId,
            p.SKU, 
            'ImageURL' AS ImageURL,
            p.Name AS ProductName,
            p.FullDescription AS Description,
            p.Price,
            p.ProductCost,
            p.StockQuantity,
            JSON_QUERY(stuff((select ',"' + STRING_ESCAPE(Name, 'json') + '"'
               FROM dbo.Product_ProductTag_Mapping ptm
               INNER JOIN dbo.ProductTag pt
                  ON pt.Id = ptm.ProductTag_Id
               WHERE ptm.Product_Id = p.Id
               for xml path(''), type
               ).value('.', 'nvarchar(max)'), 1, 1, '[') + ']') Tags,
            JSON_QUERY(stuff((select ',"' + STRING_ESCAPE(Name, 'json') + '"'
               FROM dbo.Product_Category_Mapping pcm
               INNER JOIN dbo.Category ca
                  ON ca.Id = pcm.CategoryId
               WHERE pcm.ProductId = p.Id
               for xml path(''), type
               ).value('.', 'nvarchar(max)'), 1, 1, '[') + ']') Categories
                
FROM           dbo.Product AS p WITH (NOLOCK)
                INNER JOIN
                        dbo.Product_Category_Mapping AS pcmo WITH (NOLOCK) ON p.Id = pcmo.ProductId
                INNER JOIN
                        dbo.Product_Picture_Mapping AS ppm WITH (NOLOCK) ON p.Id = ppm.ProductId
WHERE        (p.Published = 1 AND p.StockQuantity > 0 AND p.Price > 0 AND p.IsGiftCard = 0
            -- This is for duplicate records in testing
            AND( p.Id IN (SELECT DISTINCT MIN(Id) FROM dbo.Product GROUP BY SKU) ))

When I run the query in SSMS, the column tags returns all nulls. When I run the query in VS2022 Server Explorer the column tags displays the proper json string:

["topaz","peridot","emerald","silver","pierced"]

Both display categories as:

["Necklaces"]

Why the discrepancy. I believe this is why I'm getting a NullReferenceException in EFCore???

Any suggestions?

Abbott