JSON Type

TiDB supports the JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) data type, which is useful for storing semi-structured data. The JSON data type provides the following advantages over storing JSON-format strings in a string column:

• Use the Binary format for serialization. The internal format permits quick read access to JSON document elements.
• Automatic validation of the JSON documents stored in JSON columns. Only valid documents can be stored.

JSON columns, like columns of other binary types, are not indexed directly, but you can index the fields in the JSON document in the form of generated column:

CREATE TABLE city (
id INT PRIMARY KEY,
detail JSON,
population INT AS (JSON_EXTRACT(detail, '$.population')
);
INSERT INTO city VALUES (1, '{"name": "Beijing", "population": 100}');
SELECT id FROM city WHERE population >= 100;

For more information, see JSON Functions and Generated Columns.