Working with the inbuilt functions in Databricks SQL

Databricks SQL has a very comprehensive list of inbuilt functions (https://docs.databricks.com/sql/language-manual/sql-ref-functions-builtin.html) to cater to a variety of processing needs. If you are coming from a database or data warehouse world, you might not find an exact 1:1 mapping for certain functions in their names. However, by and large, you should be able to find the function for your needs. Covering all the functions is not possible in a book, nor is it of any additional value. Instead, I am going to talk about two standout powerful function families.

JSON

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is a versatile semi-structured file format that is often found in the data lake world. However, this versatility often gets abused in the form of very intricate schemas and arbitrary levels of data nesting, and, at times, arbitrary schemas as well. This makes relation processing of JSONs difficult at times.

Databricks SQL...