lance-format / lance-format/lance

Nicer accessors for JSON

Open
#8,803 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

enhancement
Dominant language
Rust
Stars
7.1k
Forks
852
Avg merge
3d 18h
Merged PRs (30d)
272

Description

The current way to access a field in a JSON object is a bit awkward.

For an object like:

{ "metadata": {"tags": ["happy", "fun"] } }

You must do:

json_extract(meta, '$.kind.tags')

But it might be nice to be able to do something like:

cast(meta.kind.tags as LIST<STRING>)

This would go into the SQL parser.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by locating the SQL parser entry points and reviewing how json_extract(meta, '$.kind.tags') is currently parsed. Clarify how dotted JSON access and the requested cast syntax should behave, then verify that the example expression is accepted and produces the intended nested-list value.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust, sql
Domain
compilers, databases
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.