Question

A data engineer loads raw event data into a table where the payload column is defined as VARCHAR and contains valid JSON text strings. Analysts complain that they cannot use dot-notation or colon-path access (e.g., payload:user.id) to extract fields directly from this column. What is the most appropriate transformation to enable semi-structured path access on this data?

Accepted Answer

Wrap the column with the PARSE_JSON function to convert the VARCHAR into a VARIANT value that supports path traversal

Answer

Apply the TO_JSON function to the VARCHAR column so that Snowflake indexes the JSON keys

Answer

Cast the column using payload::STRING and then use FLATTEN to expose the keys as columns

Answer

Change the column data type to OBJECT with an ALTER TABLE statement so path access works automatically