SQLite 3.45 has been released, and it brings several improvements to the popular SQL database library. One major enhancement is the optimization of the SQLITE_DIRECT_OVERFLOW_READ feature, which is now enabled by default. This optimization can significantly improve the read performance for applications that heavily rely on SQLite and read large BLOBs or strings. Another, perhaps more exciting update in SQLite 3.45 is the rewriting of all JSON functions to utilize the JSONB format. The JSONB version of SQLite’s JSON functions offers several times better performance compared to the existing JSON support within SQLite.

JSONB is a new internal-use binary representation of JSON that is stored as an SQL BLOB. This format allows SQLite’s internal binary representation of JSON to be directly stored in the database, eliminating the overhead of parsing and rendering JSON when reading and updating JSON values. Furthermore, the JSONB format takes up slightly less disk space than text JSON.

Source: Phoronix.

SQLite, the leading open-source embedded database solution, has recently introduced JSONB, a rewrite of its JSON functions that promises to be “several times faster” than the previous implementation. The JSONB rewrite brings significant performance improvements by changing the internal binary representation of JSON into a contiguous byte array that can be read or written as an SQL BLOB. This optimization helps to reduce the overhead of parsing JSON text and representing JSON for storage. Despite the changes, JSONB maintains all the legacy functionality of the previous JSON functions. In fact, all JSON functions can also accept JSONB binary contents, ensuring compatibility with existing code and workflows.

Source: Phoronix.