One step forward true json data type.
Channel: Andrea Ross
Date: 31/05/2013

Nested hstore with arrays support.


We present a prototype of nested hstore data type with arrays support. We consider the new hstore as a step forward true json data type.

Recently, PostgreSQL got json data type, which basically is a string storage with validity checking for stored values and some related functions. To be a real data type, it has to have a binary representation, development of which could be a big project if started from scratch. Hstore is a popular data type, we developed years ago to facilitate working with semi-structured data in PostgreSQL. It is mature and widely used data type with indexing support. Our idea is to extend hstore to be nested (value can be also hstore) data type and add support of arrays, so its binary representation can be shared with json. We present a working prototype of a new hstore data type and discuss some design and implementation issues.