R2 SQL adds JSON functions, EXPLAIN FORMAT JSON, and unpartitioned table support
Key Points
- Native JSON functions for SQL queries
- EXPLAIN FORMAT JSON for structured query plans
- Support for unpartitioned Iceberg tables
Summary
R2 SQL, Cloudflare's serverless distributed analytics query engine for Apache Iceberg tables, now includes native JSON functions, structured query plan output, and support for unpartitioned tables.
Key Points
- JSON Functions: Extract and manipulate JSON data directly in SQL queries using functions like
json_get_str(),json_get_int(),json_get_bool(), andjson_contains()without client-side processing - EXPLAIN FORMAT JSON: Query execution plans are now returned as structured JSON for programmatic analysis and observability tool integration
- Unpartitioned Table Support: Query Apache Iceberg tables without partition keys, useful for smaller datasets or data without natural time dimensions (partitioning still recommended for tables with 1000+ files)
- All features work with tables stored in R2 Data Catalog