With the two.1 launch, Apache Flink additionally now helps Course of Desk Capabilities (PTFs), essentially the most highly effective type of operate for Flink SQL and Desk API, the PMC mentioned. Conceptually, a PTF is a superset of all different user-defined features, mapping zero, one, or a number of tables to zero, one, or a number of rows. This permits implementing user-defined operators that may be as feature-rich as built-in operations, the PMC mentioned. PTFs have entry to Flink’s managed state, event-time, desk change logs, and timer providers.
Apache Flink 2.1 additionally provides VARIANT as a knowledge sort for semi-structured knowledge resembling JSON. This new sort helps storing any semi-structured knowledge together with ARRAY, MAP (with STRING keys), and scalar sorts whereas preserving discipline sort data in a JSON-like construction. Not like the ROW and STRUCTURED sorts, VARIANT offers superior flexibility for dealing with deeply nested and evolving schemas. Customers can use PARSE_JSON or TRY_PARSE_JSON to transform JSON-formatted VARCHAR knowledge to VARIANT.
Additionally in Apache Flink 2.1:
