JSON_ARRAY_UNPACK

Converts an encoded blob representing a vector to a JSON array representing the same vector.

It is a scalar function.

Syntax

JSON_ARRAY_UNPACK(vector_expression)

Arguments

  • vector_expression: An expression that evaluates to a vector. The vector must be encoded as a blob containing packed single-precision or double-precision floating-point numbers in little-endian byte order.

Return Type

A JSON array of zero or more floating point numbers.

Warning

Beginning with 8.5 the blob data type will be replaced with the vector data type. Blob data types will be deprecated for vector databases.

Remarks

A vector can be of any length, but blob lengths must be divisible by 4 bytes (or 8 bytes, depending on the data type specified).

You can specify the data type of the vector elements in which this operation is performed on the vector by adding a suffix to the function. Omitting the suffix from the function is equivalent to suffixing it with _F32. All operations are done using the specified data type. The following table lists the suffixes and their data type.

Suffix

Data Type

_I8

8-bit signed integer

_I16

16-bit signed integer

_I32

32-bit signed integer

_I64

64-bit signed integer

_F32

32-bit floating-point number (IEEE standard format)

_F64

64-bit floating-point number (IEEE standard format)

Examples

The following examples use the ju_t table.

CREATE TABLE ju_t (x BLOB, y BLOB);
INSERT INTO ju_t VALUES (JSON_ARRAY_PACK('[12.1, 6.4]'), JSON_ARRAY_PACK('[8.6,9.2]'));
INSERT INTO ju_t VALUES (JSON_ARRAY_PACK('[5.2, 11.7]'), JSON_ARRAY_PACK('[4.6,7.3]'));

Querying Rows Using JSON_ARRAY_UNPACK

The following example queries the t table using the JSON_ARRAY_UNPACK() function:

SELECT JSON_ARRAY_UNPACK(x) "x", JSON_ARRAY_UNPACK(y) "y" from ju_t;
+-------------------------+-------------------------+
| x                       | y                       |
+-------------------------+-------------------------+
| [12.1000004,6.4000001]  | [8.60000038,9.19999981] |
| [5.19999981,11.6999998] | [4.5999999,7.30000019]  |
+-------------------------+-------------------------+

Typecasting the Data Type using Suffixes

The values inserted in the t table are 32-bit floating point numbers, because no suffix was specified with the JSON_ARRAY_PACK() function. The following query returns the vector blobs as 32-bit integers.

SELECT JSON_ARRAY_UNPACK_I32(x) "x", JSON_ARRAY_UNPACK_I32(y) "y" from ju_t;
+-------------------------+-------------------------+
| x                       | y                       |
+-------------------------+-------------------------+
| [1094818202,1087163597] | [1091148186,1091777331] |
| [1084647014,1094398771] | [1083388723,1089051034] |
+-------------------------+-------------------------+

Last modified: March 8, 2024

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