November 29-30, 2023 — 7.42 Release Notes¶

Native Apps: Support for reference and privilege validation in the manifest file — Preview¶

References and privileges are now supported in an APPLICATION object installed in development mode using files on a named stage. This enables providers using the Snowflake Native App Framework to test references and privilege requests locally before defining a version in the application package.

For more information, see Request references and object-level privileges from consumers.

Schema detection for JSON and CSV — General Availability¶

With this release, we are pleased to announce the general availability of the schema detection feature for JSON and CSV. The schema detection feature uses the INFER_SCHEMA function to automatically detect the schema in a set of staged data files and retrieve the column definitions. The INFER_SCHEMA function general availability now applies to all the following file formats: Apache Parquet, Apache Avro, ORC, JSON and CSV.

For more information, see Schema detection of column definitions from staged semi-structured data files.

Table schema evolution — General Availability¶

With this release, we are pleased to announce the general availability of the table schema evolution feature. The structure of tables in Snowflake can now evolve automatically to support the structure of new data received from the data sources. Snowflake allows adding new columns or dropping the NOT NULL constraint from columns missing in new data files.

To enable table schema evolution, you can set the ENABLE_SCHEMA_EVOLUTION parameter to TRUE when you create or alter a table.

For more information, see Table schema evolution.

Apache Iceberg™ tables — Preview¶

With this release, we are pleased to announce the preview of Apache Iceberg™ tables in Snowflake. Iceberg tables for Snowflake combine the performance and query semantics of regular Snowflake tables with external cloud storage that you manage. They are ideal for maintaining a single copy of data with interoperability across a variety of compute engines.

For more information, see Apache Iceberg™ tables.

Self-service: Enabling the ORGADMIN role — General Availability¶

With this release, we are pleased to announce the general availability of a new ALTER ACCOUNT … SET IS_ORG_ADMIN syntax that allows an organization administrator to enable the ORGADMIN role within a specific account, without contacting Snowflake Support.

Once the ORGADMIN role is enabled for an account, organization administrators can log in to the account and use the role to perform organization-focused tasks like listing and creating accounts. Enabling the ORGADMIN role in an account also allows queries to access data in the ORGANIZATION_USAGE schema.

For more information, see Enabling the ORGADMIN role in an account.

Self-service: Deleting an account — General Availability¶

With this release, we are pleased to announce the general availability of self-service account deletion. An organization administrator can now delete an account without contacting Snowflake Support.

An organization administrator starts the process of deleting an account by dropping it. Once dropped, the account enters a grace period during which the account can be restored (“undropped”). Snowflake automatically deletes the account when the grace period expires.

To support the process for deleting an account, this release also includes a new syntax for the SHOW ORGANIZATION ACCOUNTS command. When the HISTORY keyword is appended to the command, the output contains dropped accounts along with additional columns such as scheduled deletion time.

For more information, see Dropping an account.

Key pair authentication: Improved troubleshooting¶

With this release, we are pleased to announce that administrators can use the SYSTEM$GET_LOGIN_FAILURE_DETAILS function to retrieve details about errors encountered when using key pair authentication to connect to Snowflake. The Snowflake documentation has been updated to provide possible solutions for the most common errors.

For more information, see Key Pair Authentication: Troubleshooting.

Structured types — Preview¶

With this release, we are pleased to announce the preview of structured types. A structured type is an ARRAY, OBJECT, or MAP that contains elements or key-value pairs with specific Snowflake data types.

The following are examples of structured types:

• An ARRAY of INTEGER elements.

• An OBJECT with VARCHAR and NUMBER key-value pairs.

• A MAP that associates a VARCHAR key with a DOUBLE value.

You can use structured types in the following ways:

• You can define a structured type column in an Apache Iceberg™ table.

  The Iceberg data types list, struct, and map correspond to the structured ARRAY, structured OBJECT, and MAP types in Snowflake.

• You use structured types when accessing data from a structured type column in an Iceberg table.

• You can cast a semi-structured ARRAY, OBJECT, or VARIANT to a corresponding structured type (e.g. an ARRAY to an ARRAY of INTEGER elements). You can also cast a structured type to a semi-structured type.

For more information, see Structured data types.

Row access policies: Reference a protected mapping table in a row access policy — General availability¶

With this release, Snowflake is pleased to announce the general availability for policy administrators to reference a mapping table that is protected by a row access policy in the policy conditions of a different row access policy. The result is more assurance to compliance officers when a user queries a table protected by a row access policy. This update entered preview in the 7.32 release.

For more information, see Protect the mapping table with a row access policy.

Recurring subscription-based pricing plans for paid listings —– General Availability¶

With this release, we are pleased to announce the general availability of recurring subscription-based pricing plans for paid listings. With this plan, you can bill consumers upfront on a recurring basis for access to your listing.

For more information, see Paid Listings Pricing Models.

Cross-Cloud Auto-Fulfillment support for sharing a Snowflake Native App — Preview¶

With this release, we are pleased to announce the preview of Cross-Cloud Auto-Fulfillment support for sharing a Snowflake Native App. Cross-Cloud Auto-Fulfillment lets you, as a provider, share your Snowflake Native App with consumers in other supported regions.

For more information, see Configuring Cross-Cloud Auto-Fulfillment.

As part of this release, the process for upgrading and versioning your application package has been improved, including cross-region support for DROP APPLICATION PACKAGE and application status in the APPLICATION_STATE view.

For more information, see Update and upgrade a Snowflake Native App.