Variant Data Type - Making Semi-Structured Data Fast and Simple

Explore the Variant data type for efficient processing of semi-structured data in lakehouse architecture through this 24-minute conference talk by Databricks engineers. Learn how the Variant data type offers flexibility in schema evolution without pre-defined schemas, while providing faster processing than traditional string parsing methods. Discover the details of Variant binary encoding and its performance benefits for handling JSON and other semi-structured data formats. Gain insights into improving data warehousing applications that deal with evolving, semi-structured information. Presented by Chenhao Li and Gene Pang, this talk demonstrates how to make semi-structured data processing both fast and simple in modern data architectures.