JSONB tools
Work with JSONB data in PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL's JSONB type bridges the gap between relational and document databases, letting you store semi-structured data alongside traditional columns without sacrificing ACID guarantees, indexing capabilities, or query performance. Unlike plain JSON, JSONB is stored in a decomposed binary format that supports efficient indexing and does not require reparsing on every access.
JSONB supports GIN indexes for fast containment queries (@>), existence checks (?), and path-based lookups. Expression indexes on specific JSON paths (e.g., CREATE INDEX ON orders ((data->>'status'))) provide the same performance as regular column indexes. PostgreSQL 12+ added SQL/JSON path expressions for complex traversals, and PostgreSQL 16 introduced jsonb_strip_nulls improvements and better JSONB subscripting.
These tools help you write JSONB queries, choose the right indexing strategy for your access patterns, and decide when to use JSONB versus normalized columns. The AI assistant understands common patterns like storing audit trails, user preferences, API responses, and event data in JSONB, and can help you avoid pitfalls like deeply nested structures that defeat indexing.
Common problems
- Missing GIN indexes on JSONB columns causing full table scans
- Using `->` (returns JSON) when `->>` (returns text) is needed for comparisons
- Deeply nested structures that cannot be efficiently indexed
- Not using expression indexes for frequently queried JSON paths
- Storing highly relational data in JSONB when normalized columns would perform better