Why would a Snowflake user load JSON data into a VARIANT column instead of a string column?

The correct answer is C. A variant column can be used to create a data hierarchy and a string column cannot. A VARIANT column in Snowflake natively understands JSON's hierarchical structure - nested objects and arrays - and allows you to traverse that hierarchy using dot notation (e.g., col:address.city) and bracket notation. A string column stores JSON as opaque flat text with no…

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AA VARIANT column is more secure than a string column
BA VARIANT column compresses data and a string column does not.
CA variant column can be used to create a data hierarchy and a string column cannot
DA VARIANT column will have a better query performance than a string column.

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A
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B
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C
91% (43)
D
4% (2)

Explanation

A VARIANT column in Snowflake natively understands JSON's hierarchical structure - nested objects and arrays - and allows you to traverse that hierarchy using dot notation (e.g., col:address.city) and bracket notation. A string column stores JSON as opaque flat text with no structural awareness, so you cannot navigate nested fields or treat the data as a hierarchy without complex string manipulation. VARIANT also enables direct querying, type casting with ::, and use of semi-structured functions, none of which are possible on a plain string column.

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#JSON data#VARIANT data type#Semi-structured data#Data types

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