In Snowflake, how do I select directly from a json variable? - snowflake-cloud-data-platform

Question

How can I build a select statement in Snowflake where I am selecting directly from a json variant variable, instead of a column in a table? My json is just an array of objects, and I will want to select the properties as columns. I see tons of examples of using flatten on a variant column, but can't figure out how to select directly from a variable without a table and column.
var_input := '
[
{
"Name": "Avinash Gupta",
"Relationship": "Father",
},
{
"Name": "Lata Gupta",
"Relationship": "Mother",
},
{
"Name": "Shrishti Gupta",
"Relationship": "Sister",
},
{
"Name": "Bobin Gupta",
"Relationship": "Brother",
}
]' ;

Answer 1

It is perfectly possible, to access variable in SELECT. Example below:
BEGIN
LET var_input VARIANT :=
'[
{
"Name": "Avinash Gupta",
"Relationship": "Father",
},
{
"Name": "Lata Gupta",
"Relationship": "Mother",
},
{
"Name": "Shrishti Gupta",
"Relationship": "Sister",
},
{
"Name": "Bobin Gupta",
"Relationship": "Brother",
}
]';
-- materializing the output as temporary table for simplicity
CREATE OR REPLACE TEMPORARY TABLE t AS
SELECT f.value:Name::TEXT AS name
FROM TABLE(FLATTEN(INPUT => PARSE_JSON(:var_input))) AS f;
END;
SELECT * FROM t;
Output: