[docs](variant) document VARIANT behavior in Doris 4.2+ by eldenmoon · Pull Request #4001 · apache/doris-website

eldenmoon · 2026-07-19T11:13:12Z

What changed

Merge the Doris 4.2+ compute behavior into the main English and Chinese VARIANT reference instead of exposing a separate V2 document or V2 session switch.
Document JSON/JSONB input for PARSE_TO_VARIANT and PARSE_TO_VARIANT_ERROR_TO_NULL, and explain that ERROR_TO_NULL converts parsing and validation failures to SQL NULL.
Add complete CAST guidance in both directions: supported SQL types to VARIANT, VARIANT to supported SQL types, JSON/JSONB conversion, array conversion, and the enable_variant_string_cast_parse behavior.
Document logical equality and canonical hash semantics, including GROUP BY, DISTINCT, set operations, JOIN restrictions, ORDER BY restrictions, window keys, COUNT, MIN/MAX, nested expressions, and explode behavior.
Align ELEMENT_AT documentation with Doris 4.2+ VARIANT array indexing and update the Variant Functions sidebar.

Why

The documentation should describe user-visible VARIANT capabilities by Doris version, not expose the internal ColumnVariantV2 implementation. The refactor also consolidates one data type into one reference page and fills the missing CAST, JSONB, hash, grouping, join, and ordering details requested in review.

Validation

git diff --check: passed.
corepack yarn docs:sql-functions:changed: passed with no findings.
corepack yarn docs:features:changed: passed with no findings.
corepack yarn docs:links:changed: passed with no errors. The two redirect-review warnings are intentional because the removed V2 pages were introduced only by this unmerged PR.
corepack yarn docs:i18n-sync:changed: passed. Current-to-versioned warnings are an intentional version exception because these behaviors start in Doris 4.2 and should not be copied into existing released 4.x/3.x docs.
corepack yarn docs:seo:changed: passed; only existing cross-version and cross-locale duplicate-title warnings remain.
corepack yarn typecheck: repository baseline still fails on unrelated existing TypeScript errors outside the changed docs and sidebars.

yiguolei · 2026-07-21T03:07:12Z

@@ -0,0 +1,177 @@
+---
+{
+    "title": "VARIANT V2 Behavior and Semantics",


这个文档，跟底下的variant的合并了吧。我们每个类型一个文档，包括这个类型相关的所有的信息。

yiguolei · 2026-07-21T03:07:49Z

@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+---
+{
+    "title": "PARSE_TO_VARIANT_ERROR_TO_NULL",


这个标题是啥含义啊

yiguolei · 2026-07-21T03:59:58Z

+
+## 概览
+
+实验性 VARIANT V2 扩展了可以消费 `VARIANT` 值的运算，并为分组、去重和集合运算定义了一致的 logical-value 语义。


不要暴露variant v2.
我们应该是比如说4.2 之后的variant 具备哪些功能。

yiguolei · 2026-07-21T04:00:37Z

+
+## 参数
+
+- `json_text`：包含一个完整 JSON 值的 `VARCHAR` 表达式。


这个parse to variant，不可以输入一个jsonb 吗？

yiguolei · 2026-07-21T04:02:02Z

+SELECT PARSE_TO_VARIANT('null');
+```
+
+### 提取值并 CAST 为确定类型


这里少一个cast的文档。
cast 文档中包括两部分：

cast to variant，把其他类型cast 到variant

cast variant 到其他类型

yiguolei · 2026-07-21T04:04:35Z

+
+## Equality 语义
+
+开启 VARIANT V2 后，支持的分组、去重和集合运算会按 logical value 判断相等性，而不是按来源 SQL 类型或表示形式：


需要补充一下关于join，order by，group by的支持情况；
hash 值计算的情况

eldenmoon added 3 commits July 19, 2026 19:12

docs: document ColumnVariantV2 compute behavior

6383710

docs: add Variant parsing function guides

ef7240f

Merge upstream master into Variant docs branch

45466d0

eldenmoon had a problem deploying to Production July 19, 2026 11:31 — with GitHub Actions Error

docs: normalize Variant element index notes

9fd9aec

eldenmoon had a problem deploying to Production July 19, 2026 11:34 — with GitHub Actions Error

docs: add ColumnVariantV2 behavior examples

038c006

eldenmoon temporarily deployed to Production July 19, 2026 11:42 — with GitHub Actions Inactive

docs: clarify Variant cast and memory semantics

7ef9c28

eldenmoon temporarily deployed to Production July 19, 2026 11:52 — with GitHub Actions Inactive

docs: document Variant decimal and datetime encoding

8b97975

eldenmoon temporarily deployed to Production July 19, 2026 14:20 — with GitHub Actions Inactive

docs: split Variant V2 compute semantics reference

8918b28

eldenmoon temporarily deployed to Production July 19, 2026 15:00 — with GitHub Actions Inactive

docs: focus Variant V2 reference on user behavior

a5774d4

eldenmoon temporarily deployed to Production July 19, 2026 15:49 — with GitHub Actions Inactive

yiguolei reviewed Jul 21, 2026

View reviewed changes

docs: address VARIANT review feedback

0555201

eldenmoon temporarily deployed to Production July 21, 2026 06:03 — with GitHub Actions Inactive

eldenmoon changed the title ~~[docs](variant) document ColumnVariantV2 compute behavior~~ [docs](variant) document VARIANT behavior in Doris 4.2+ Jul 21, 2026

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[docs](variant) document VARIANT behavior in Doris 4.2+#4001

[docs](variant) document VARIANT behavior in Doris 4.2+#4001
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		## 概览

		实验性 VARIANT V2 扩展了可以消费 `VARIANT` 值的运算，并为分组、去重和集合运算定义了一致的 logical-value 语义。


		## 参数

		- `json_text`：包含一个完整 JSON 值的 `VARCHAR` 表达式。


		## Equality 语义

		开启 VARIANT V2 后，支持的分组、去重和集合运算会按 logical value 判断相等性，而不是按来源 SQL 类型或表示形式：

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eldenmoon commented Jul 19, 2026 •

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