Snowflake Database, Schema, Table & Container Hierarchy

Snowflake Database, Schema, Table & Container Hierarchy

Snowflake Container Hierarchy concept is very important and not understood by many developer. This blog focuses with table creation, be it standard or external or transient or temporary. It also help with real example of data loading into a table via insert statement, or create as select or insert as select or copy command.

Alongside standard DDL Creation, this blog & attached video tutorial also focuses on

  1. Different Data Type while creating tables.
  2. Not Null constaints with field
  3. Case sensitivity with table names.
  4. Describe tables with desc and get_ddl function.
  5. Primary Key & Unique Key constaints in Snowflake tables.
  6. Query External Stage in Snowflake

Watch Snowflake Object (Database, Schema, Tables) Video

You can watch the complete hands on video tutorial

All the script used in above video tutorial

Create Database & Schema under snowflake account


-- set context & warehouse
use role sysadmin;

-- create a database
    create database my_db 
    comment = 'this is my demo db';

-- show all the datatabase and schema
show databases like 'MY%';

-- as soon as you create the db, the context is changed and current db is set
select current_role(), current_database();

-- create a schema
    create schema my_schema
    comment = 'this is my demo schema under my_db';
    
    show schemas;

 -- as soon as you create the db, the context is changed and current db is set
select current_role(), current_database(), current_schema();

Create a table with different data type

-- Create a table called my_table
    -- table creation does not need any virtual warehouse or compute
    -- use warehouse compute_wh;
    
    drop table if exists my_table;
    create table my_table (
      num number,
      num10_1 number(10,1),
      decimal_20_2 decimal(20,2),
      numeric numeric(30,3),
      int int,
      integer integer
    );
    
    desc table my_table;
    --desc table my_db.my_schema.my_table; -- fully qualified name
    
    select get_ddl('table','my_table');
    
    insert into my_table(num,num10_1,decimal_20_2,numeric,int,integer) 
    values(10,22.2,33.33,123456789,987654321,12112);
    
    -- multiple insert using single statement
    insert into my_table(num,num10_1,decimal_20_2,numeric,int,integer) 
    values (20,22.2,33.33,123456789,987654321,12112), (30,22.2,33.33,123456789,987654321,12112);
    
    select * from my_table;
    select * from my_db.my_schema.my_table; -- fully qualified name
    select * from "my_db.my_schema.my_table"; -- fully qualified name
    select * from "my_db"."my_schema"."my_table"; -- fully qualified name

Create a table with text field


    -- 
    drop table if exists my_text_table;
    create table my_text_table (
        id int autoincrement,
        v varchar,
        v50 varchar(50),
        c char,
        c10 char(10),
        s string,
        s20 string(20),
        t text,
        t30 text(30)
        );
        
     desc table my_text_table;
     
     insert into my_text_table(v,v50,c,c10,s,s20,t,t30) 
     values('a','b','c','d','e','f','g','h');
     
     -- lets load data using webui
     select * from my_text_table;
     
     -- boolean data set
     create or replace table my_boolean_table(
        b boolean,
        n number,
        s string);
        
      desc table my_boolean_table;
        
     insert into my_boolean_table values (true, 1, 'yes'), (false, 0, 'no'), (null, null, null);
     select * from my_boolean_table;

Create a table with date and timestamp field

-- time stamp table
     drop table if exists my_ts_tablel;
     create or replace table my_ts_table(
       today_date date default current_date(),
       now_time time default current_time(),
       now_ts timestamp default current_timestamp()
      );
      
      -- lets desc the table
      desc table my_ts_table;
      
      -- insert one record
      insert into my_ts_table (today_date,now_time,now_ts) values (current_date, current_time,current_timestamp);
      insert into my_ts_table (now_time,now_ts) values (current_time,current_timestamp);
      
      -- now select the data
      select * from my_ts_table;
      
      -- change the session level timezone and see the result
      alter session set timezone = 'America/Los_Angeles';
      alter session set timezone = 'Japan';
      alter session set timestamp_output_format = 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS.FF';
      

Create a table with Upper, Lower & Mixed Case

// ====================================================================
-- Upper, Lower & Mixed case table
    drop table my_case_table;
    create table my_case_table (my_field string);
    desc table my_case_table;
    show tables like 'MY_C%';
    create table MY_CASE_TABLE (my_field string);
    create table my_CASE_TABLE (my_field string);

    -- run show tables command
    show tables;

// ====================================================================
-- Object Identifier
  create table "my table" (my_field string);
  create table "My Table" ("my field" string);
  create table "MY TABLE" ("my field" string, "My Field" string);
  
  show tables;
  desc table "my table";
  desc table "MY TABLE" ;
  

Create a table using select as statement

// ====================================================================
-- Create table as select
    create table my_ctas as select * from my_db.my_schema.my_table;
    
    select * from my_ctas;

-- Load data using select as statement
    insert into my_ctas (num ,num10_1, decimal_20_2 ,numeric,int ,integer) 
            select 
                num ,num10_1, decimal_20_2 ,numeric,int ,integer 
            from 
                my_db.my_schema.my_table;
   

Constaints in Snowflake

// =====================================================================
-- lets quickly understand the const
    drop table if exists my_constaints_table;
    create table my_constaints_table (
      emp_pk string primary key,
      fname string not null,
      lname string not null,
      flag string default 'active',
      unique_code string unique
    );
    
    insert into my_constaints_table (emp_pk,fname,lname,unique_code)
    values   ('100','John1','K','1000'),
             ('100','John2','K','1000');
             
    select * from my_constaints_table;
    
    -- below throws error as PK is missing
    insert into my_constaints_table (fname,lname,unique_code)
    values   ('John3','K','1000');
    
    -- below throws error as non-null column value is missing
    insert into my_constaints_table (emp_pk,fname,unique_code)
    values   (100,'John4','1000');
    
    -- so you have to take care of PK and Uniqueness, only Not-null is applifed
       

Data Loading using snowflake put command

// =========================================================
-- loading data from stg system
-- create a stage using WebUI

  -- load the data via put command 
  -- snowsql -a eg12345.east-us-2.azure -u admin
  -- put file:///tmp/ch07.csv @my_stg;
  
  list @my_stg;
  
  /* sample data
    100,22.2,33.33,123456789,987654321,12112
    200,22.2,33.33,123456789,987654321,12112
    300,22.2,33.33,123456789,987654321,12112
  */

    -- list the stage
    list @ch7_stg;
    
    -- lets view the data first
    create or replace file format my_format type = 'csv' field_delimiter = ',';
    select t.$1, t.$2, t.$3,t.$4, t.$5, t.$6 from @my_stg (file_format => 'my_format') t; 
    
    -- now we can use copy command to load data
    
    drop table if exists my_stg_table;
    create table my_stg_table (
      num number,
      num10_1 number(10,1),
      decimal_20_2 decimal(20,2),
      numeric numeric(30,3),
      int int,
      integer integer
    );
    
    -- lets check data
    select * from my_stg_table;
    
    -- now load data via copy command
    copy into my_stg_table 
    from @my_stg;

    -- lets check data
    select * from my_stg_table;
    
//=========================================================

Create a table and alter it for time travel

-- size of data
-- create a table using snowflake sample data

    -- create using ctas
    create table my_ctas_big_table as select * from "SNOWFLAKE_SAMPLE_DATA"."TPCH_SF100"."ORDERS";
    
    -- change the time travel to 30 days;
    alter table my_ctas_big_table set data_retention_time_in_days=30;
    
    -- lets check the table before update
    select * from my_ctas_big_table limit 10;
    
    -- lets change the status
    select  O_ORDERSTATUS,count(1) from my_ctas_big_table group by O_ORDERSTATUS;
    
    -- update the data and see the storage cost now
    update my_ctas_big_table set O_ORDERSTATUS ='o' where O_ORDERSTATUS = 'O';
    
    select  count(*) from my_ctas_big_table before (statement => '019f0d45-0b01-d7c5-0000-0001acbea735')
    where  O_ORDERSTATUS = 'O';
    
    select  count(*) from my_ctas_big_table where  O_ORDERSTATUS = 'P';
    
    
//=======================================

Variant data type & external table

-- Variant Data
    create table json_weather_data (v variant);
    desc table json_weather_data;
    
    create stage nyc_weather
    url = 's3://my-s3-bucket/sub-folder';
    

    -- list wheather
    list @nyc_weather;
    
    -- copy from external stage
    copy into json_weather_data 
    from @nyc_weather 
    file_format = (type=json);
    
    -- select data
    select * from json_weather_data limit 10;
    
    -- create a view
    create view json_weather_data_view as
    select
      v:time::timestamp as observation_time,
      v:city.id::int as city_id,
      v:city.name::string as city_name,
      v:city.country::string as country,
      v:city.coord.lat::float as city_lat,
      v:city.coord.lon::float as city_lon,
      v:clouds.all::int as clouds,
      (v:main.temp::float)-273.15 as temp_avg,
      (v:main.temp_min::float)-273.15 as temp_min,
      (v:main.temp_max::float)-273.15 as temp_max,
      v:weather[0].main::string as weather,
      v:weather[0].description::string as weather_desc,
      v:weather[0].icon::string as weather_icon,
      v:wind.deg::float as wind_dir,
      v:wind.speed::float as wind_speed
    from json_weather_data
    where city_id = 5128638;
    
    select * from json_weather_data_view;
    
    -- create external table
    create or replace external table json_weather_data_et (
        time varchar AS (value:c1::varchar), 
        ....
    
    )
    with location=@nyc_weather
    auto_refresh = false
    file_format = (format_name = file_format)
;

Transient & Temporary Table

// =======================================
-- Temp & Transitent table
    
    // create a transitent table
    create transitent table json_weather_data (v variant);
    
    // create a temporaty table 
    create temporary table json_weather_data (v variant);