diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/common/ResultExtractor.java b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/common/ResultExtractor.java
index 60d44a1..5e53d54 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/common/ResultExtractor.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/common/ResultExtractor.java
@@ -86,6 +86,12 @@
     private static final Logger LOGGER = LogManager.getLogger();
     private static final ObjectMapper OBJECT_MAPPER = new ObjectMapper();
 
+    public static ExtractedResult extract(InputStream resultStream, Charset resultCharset, String outputFormat)
+            throws Exception {
+        return extract(resultStream, EnumSet.of(ResultField.RESULTS, ResultField.WARNINGS), resultCharset,
+                outputFormat);
+    }
+
     public static ExtractedResult extract(InputStream resultStream, Charset resultCharset) throws Exception {
         return extract(resultStream, EnumSet.of(ResultField.RESULTS, ResultField.WARNINGS), resultCharset);
     }
@@ -120,6 +126,25 @@
 
     private static ExtractedResult extract(InputStream resultStream, EnumSet<ResultField> resultFields,
             Charset resultCharset) throws Exception {
+        return extract(resultStream, resultFields, resultCharset, "jsonl"); //default output format type is jsonl
+    }
+
+    private static ExtractedResult extract(InputStream resultStream, EnumSet<ResultField> resultFields,
+            Charset resultCharset, String fmt) throws Exception {
+
+        if (fmt.equals("json")) {
+            return extract(resultStream, resultFields, resultCharset, "[", ",", "]");
+        }
+
+        if (fmt.equals("jsonl")) {
+            return extract(resultStream, resultFields, resultCharset, "", "", "");
+        }
+
+        throw new AsterixException("Unkown output format for result of test query");
+    }
+
+    private static ExtractedResult extract(InputStream resultStream, EnumSet<ResultField> resultFields,
+            Charset resultCharset, String openMarker, String separator, String closeMarker) throws Exception {
         ExtractedResult extractedResult = new ExtractedResult();
         final String resultStr = IOUtils.toString(resultStream, resultCharset);
         final ObjectNode result = OBJECT_MAPPER.readValue(resultStr, ObjectNode.class);
@@ -158,7 +183,10 @@
                     } else {
                         JsonNode[] fields = Iterators.toArray(fieldValue.elements(), JsonNode.class);
                         if (fields.length > 1) {
+                            String sep = openMarker;
                             for (JsonNode f : fields) {
+                                resultBuilder.append(sep);
+                                sep = separator;
                                 if (f.isObject()) {
 
                                     resultBuilder.append(OBJECT_MAPPER.writeValueAsString(f));
@@ -166,6 +194,7 @@
                                     resultBuilder.append(f.asText());
                                 }
                             }
+                            resultBuilder.append(closeMarker);
                         }
 
                     }
diff --git a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/common/TestExecutor.java b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/common/TestExecutor.java
index 15711d0..8dc04eb 100644
--- a/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/common/TestExecutor.java
+++ b/asterixdb/asterix-app/src/test/java/org/apache/asterix/test/common/TestExecutor.java
@@ -138,6 +138,9 @@
             Pattern.compile("polltimeoutsecs=(\\d+)(\\D|$)", Pattern.MULTILINE);
     private static final Pattern POLL_DELAY_PATTERN = Pattern.compile("polldelaysecs=(\\d+)(\\D|$)", Pattern.MULTILINE);
     private static final Pattern HANDLE_VARIABLE_PATTERN = Pattern.compile("handlevariable=(\\w+)");
+    private static final Pattern RESULT_VARIABLE_PATTERN = Pattern.compile("resultvariable=(\\w+)");
+    private static final Pattern OUTPUTFORMAT_VARIABLE_PATTERN = Pattern.compile("outputformat=(\\w+)");
+
     private static final Pattern VARIABLE_REF_PATTERN = Pattern.compile("\\$(\\w+)");
     private static final Pattern HTTP_PARAM_PATTERN =
             Pattern.compile("param (?<name>[\\w-$]+)(?::(?<type>\\w+))?=(?<value>.*)", Pattern.MULTILINE);
@@ -236,6 +239,9 @@
             ComparisonEnum compare, Charset actualEncoding) throws Exception {
         LOGGER.info("Expected results file: {} ", expectedFile);
         boolean regex = false;
+        if (expectedFile.getName().endsWith(".ignore")) {
+            return; //skip the comparison
+        }
         try (BufferedReader readerExpected =
                 new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(expectedFile), UTF_8));
                 BufferedReader readerActual =
@@ -1318,13 +1324,14 @@
         }
 
         boolean isJsonEncoded = isJsonEncoded(extractHttpRequestType(statement));
-
         Charset responseCharset = getResponseCharset(expectedResultFile);
         InputStream resultStream;
         ExtractedResult extractedResult = null;
+        final String variablesReplaced = replaceVarRefRelaxed(statement, variableCtx);
+        String resultVar = getResultVariable(statement); //Is the result of the statement/query to be used in later tests
         if (DELIVERY_IMMEDIATE.equals(delivery)) {
-            resultStream = executeQueryService(statement, ctx, fmt, uri, params, isJsonEncoded, responseCharset, null,
-                    isCancellable(reqType));
+            resultStream = executeQueryService(variablesReplaced, ctx, fmt, uri, params, isJsonEncoded, responseCharset,
+                    null, isCancellable(reqType));
             switch (reqType) {
                 case METRICS_QUERY_TYPE:
                     resultStream = ResultExtractor.extractMetrics(resultStream, responseCharset);
@@ -1336,7 +1343,13 @@
                     resultStream = ResultExtractor.extractPlans(resultStream, responseCharset);
                     break;
                 default:
-                    extractedResult = ResultExtractor.extract(resultStream, responseCharset);
+                    String outputFormatVariable = getOutputFormatVariable(statement);
+                    if ((outputFormatVariable == null) || (outputFormatVariable.equals("jsonl"))) {
+                        extractedResult = ResultExtractor.extract(resultStream, responseCharset);
+                    } else {
+                        extractedResult = ResultExtractor.extract(resultStream, responseCharset, "json");
+                    }
+
                     resultStream = extractedResult.getResult();
                     break;
             }
@@ -1356,7 +1369,13 @@
                         + ", filectxs.size: " + numResultFiles);
             }
         } else {
-            writeOutputToFile(actualResultFile, resultStream);
+            if (resultVar != null) {
+                String result = IOUtils.toString(resultStream, responseCharset);
+                variableCtx.put(resultVar, result);
+                writeOutputToFile(actualResultFile, new ByteArrayInputStream(result.getBytes(responseCharset)));
+            } else {
+                writeOutputToFile(actualResultFile, resultStream);
+            }
             if (expectedResultFile == null) {
                 if (reqType.equals("store")) {
                     return extractedResult;
@@ -1584,6 +1603,16 @@
         return handleVariableMatcher.find() ? handleVariableMatcher.group(1) : null;
     }
 
+    protected static String getResultVariable(String statement) {
+        final Matcher resultVariableMatcher = RESULT_VARIABLE_PATTERN.matcher(statement);
+        return resultVariableMatcher.find() ? resultVariableMatcher.group(1) : null;
+    }
+
+    protected static String getOutputFormatVariable(String statement) {
+        final Matcher outputFormatVariableMatcher = OUTPUTFORMAT_VARIABLE_PATTERN.matcher(statement);
+        return outputFormatVariableMatcher.find() ? outputFormatVariableMatcher.group(1) : null;
+    }
+
     protected static String replaceVarRef(String statement, Map<String, Object> variableCtx) {
         String tmpStmt = statement;
         Matcher variableReferenceMatcher = VARIABLE_REF_PATTERN.matcher(tmpStmt);
@@ -1597,6 +1626,21 @@
         return tmpStmt;
     }
 
+    protected static String replaceVarRefRelaxed(String statement, Map<String, Object> variableCtx) {
+        String tmpStmt = statement;
+        Matcher variableReferenceMatcher = VARIABLE_REF_PATTERN.matcher(tmpStmt);
+        while (variableReferenceMatcher.find()) {
+            String var = variableReferenceMatcher.group(1);
+            Object value = variableCtx.get(var);
+            if (value == null) {
+                continue;
+            }
+            tmpStmt = tmpStmt.replace("$" + var, String.valueOf(value));
+            variableReferenceMatcher = VARIABLE_REF_PATTERN.matcher(tmpStmt);
+        }
+        return tmpStmt;
+    }
+
     protected static Optional<String> extractMaxResultReads(String statement) {
         final Matcher m = MAX_RESULT_READS_PATTERN.matcher(statement);
         while (m.find()) {