This post covers a hands-on walkthrough of MySQL 8.0's JSON functions. JSON support has been in MySQL since 5.7, but 8.0 added a meaningful set of improvements — better indexing strategies, new functions, and multi-valued indexes — that make working with JSON data considerably more practical. The following documents several of the most commonly needed patterns, including EXPLAIN output and performance observations worth knowing about.
This isn't a "JSON vs. relational" debate post. If you're storing JSON in MySQL, you probably already have your reasons. The goal here is to make sure you're using the available tooling effectively.
Environment
mysql> SELECT @@version, @@version_comment\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
@@version: 8.0.36
@@version_comment: MySQL Community Server - GPL
Testing was done on a VM with 8GB RAM and …
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