Categories:

Table functions (Object Modeling)

GET_OBJECT_REFERENCES¶

Returns a list of objects that a specified object references. Input is currently limited to the name of a view.

The following table identifies which types of database objects are currently returned in the output:

Object Type

Returned in Output?

Tables

Yes

Views (including secure views)

Yes

Materialized views

No

Named stages (internal or external)

No

Streams

No

User-defined functions (UDF) / user-defined table functions (UDTF)

No

Syntax¶

GET_OBJECT_REFERENCES(
  DATABASE_NAME => '<string>'
  , SCHEMA_NAME => '<string>'
  , OBJECT_NAME => '<string>' )
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Arguments¶

DATABASE_NAME => 'string'

Name of the database in which the schema and object reside.

SCHEMA_NAME => 'string'

Name of the schema in which the object resides.

OBJECT_NAME => 'string'

Name of the object. Currently limited to the name of a view (secure or not secure).

Returns¶

The function returns the following columns:

Column Name

Data Type

Description

DATABASE_NAME

TEXT

Name of the database that contains the queried object.

SCHEMA_NAME

TEXT

Name of the schema that contains the queried object.

OBJECT_NAME

TEXT

Name of the queried object.

REFERENCED_DATABASE_NAME

TEXT

Name of the database containing an object that the queried object references.

REFERENCED_SCHEMA_NAME

TEXT

Name of the database containing an object that the queried object references.

REFERENCED_OBJECT_NAME

TEXT

Name of an object that the queried object references.

REFERENCED_OBJECT_TYPE

TEXT

Type of object identified in the REFERENCED_OBJECT_NAME column. Values include TABLE or VIEW.

Usage notes¶

  • This function requires the following privileges:

    • SELECT on the view. To obtain references for a view, the role in use or a role granted to the role in use must have the SELECT privilege on the view. For details, refer to Table privileges and View privileges.

    • OWNERSHIP on the secure view. If the dependency chain references any secure view, the role in use or a role granted to the role in use must have the OWNERSHIP privilege on the secure view. Otherwise, Snowflake returns this error message:

      Insufficient privileges to operate on view '<view_name>'
      
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  • The DATABASE_NAME, SCHEMA_NAME, and OBJECT_NAME values must be enclosed in single quotes. Also, if any of these names contains any spaces, mixed-case characters, or special characters, the name must be double-quoted within the single quotes (e.g. '"My DB"' vs 'mydb').

  • If the view references stages, UDFs, or materialized views, this function returns an error, rather than returning a list of referenced tables and views.

Examples¶

Return the list of references for a view:

-- create a database
create or replace database ex1_gor_x;
use database ex1_gor_x;
use schema PUBLIC;

-- create a set of tables
create or replace table x_tab_a (mycol int not null);
create or replace table x_tab_b (mycol int not null);
create or replace table x_tab_c (mycol int not null);

-- create views with increasing complexity of references
create or replace view x_view_d as
select * from x_tab_a
join x_tab_b
using ( mycol );

create or replace view x_view_e as
select x_tab_b.* from x_tab_b, x_tab_c
where x_tab_b.mycol=x_tab_c.mycol;

--create a second database
create or replace database ex1_gor_y;
use database ex1_gor_y;
use schema PUBLIC;

-- create a table in the second database
create or replace table y_tab_a (mycol int not null);

-- create more views with increasing levels of references
create or replace view y_view_b as
select * from ex1_gor_x.public.x_tab_a
join y_tab_a
using ( mycol );

create or replace view y_view_c as
select b.* from ex1_gor_x.public.x_tab_b b, ex1_gor_x.public.x_tab_c c
where b.mycol=c.mycol;

create or replace view y_view_d as
select * from ex1_gor_x.public.x_view_e;

create or replace view y_view_e as
select e.* from ex1_gor_x.public.x_view_e e, y_tab_a
where e.mycol=y_tab_a.mycol;

create or replace view y_view_f as
select e.* from ex1_gor_x.public.x_view_e e, ex1_gor_x.public.x_tab_c c, y_tab_a
where e.mycol=y_tab_a.mycol
and e.mycol=c.mycol;

-- retrieve the references for the last view created
select * from table(get_object_references(database_name=>'ex1_gor_y', schema_name=>'public', object_name=>'y_view_f'));

+---------------+-------------+-----------+--------------------------+------------------------+------------------------+------------------------+
| DATABASE_NAME | SCHEMA_NAME | VIEW_NAME | REFERENCED_DATABASE_NAME | REFERENCED_SCHEMA_NAME | REFERENCED_OBJECT_NAME | REFERENCED_OBJECT_TYPE |
|---------------+-------------+-----------+--------------------------+------------------------+------------------------+------------------------|
| EX1_GOR_Y     | PUBLIC      | Y_VIEW_F  | EX1_GOR_Y                | PUBLIC                 | Y_TAB_A                | TABLE                  |
| EX1_GOR_Y     | PUBLIC      | Y_VIEW_F  | EX1_GOR_X                | PUBLIC                 | X_TAB_B                | TABLE                  |
| EX1_GOR_Y     | PUBLIC      | Y_VIEW_F  | EX1_GOR_X                | PUBLIC                 | X_TAB_C                | TABLE                  |
| EX1_GOR_Y     | PUBLIC      | Y_VIEW_F  | EX1_GOR_X                | PUBLIC                 | X_VIEW_E               | VIEW                   |
+---------------+-------------+-----------+--------------------------+------------------------+------------------------+------------------------+
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