With version 8.0 MySQL comes with support for JSON. This allows the storage of JSON data in a column and the usage of JSON functions.

In a project I needed to check which values are available for a particular property, the JSON column path operator came in handy.

SELECT
  `publicDataJson__de`->'$.preisFaktor' AS `preisFaktor`,
  COUNT(*) AS `numberOfHits`
FROM `products`
GROUP BY `preisFaktor`;

Another query was to check for non-empty JSON fields.

WHERE JSON_LENGTH(structure) != 0