Parameters¶

Snowflake provides parameters that let you control the behavior of your account, individual user sessions, and objects. All the parameters have default values, which can be set and then overridden at different levels depending on the parameter type (Account, Session, or Object).

In this Topic:

Parameter Hierarchy and Types
- Account Parameters
- Session Parameters
- Object Parameters
Viewing the Parameters and Their Values
- Viewing Session and Object Parameters
- Viewing All Parameters
- Limiting the List of Parameters by Name
ABORT_DETACHED_QUERY
ALLOW_CLIENT_MFA_CACHING
ALLOW_ID_TOKEN
AUTOCOMMIT
AUTOCOMMIT_API_SUPPORTED (View-only)
BINARY_INPUT_FORMAT
BINARY_OUTPUT_FORMAT
CLIENT_ENABLE_LOG_INFO_STATEMENT_PARAMETERS
CLIENT_ENCRYPTION_KEY_SIZE
CLIENT_MEMORY_LIMIT
CLIENT_METADATA_REQUEST_USE_CONNECTION_CTX
CLIENT_METADATA_USE_SESSION_DATABASE
CLIENT_PREFETCH_THREADS
CLIENT_RESULT_CHUNK_SIZE
CLIENT_RESULT_COLUMN_CASE_INSENSITIVE
CLIENT_SESSION_KEEP_ALIVE
CLIENT_SESSION_KEEP_ALIVE_HEARTBEAT_FREQUENCY
CLIENT_TIMESTAMP_TYPE_MAPPING
DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS
DATE_INPUT_FORMAT
DATE_OUTPUT_FORMAT
DEFAULT_DDL_COLLATION
ENABLE_INTERNAL_STAGES_PRIVATELINK
ENABLE_UNLOAD_PHYSICAL_TYPE_OPTIMIZATION
ENFORCE_SESSION_POLICY
ERROR_ON_NONDETERMINISTIC_MERGE
ERROR_ON_NONDETERMINISTIC_UPDATE
EXTERNAL_OAUTH_ADD_PRIVILEGED_ROLES_TO_BLOCKED_LIST
GEOGRAPHY_OUTPUT_FORMAT
GEOMETRY_OUTPUT_FORMAT
INITIAL_REPLICATION_SIZE_LIMIT_IN_TB
JDBC_TREAT_DECIMAL_AS_INT
JDBC_TREAT_TIMESTAMP_NTZ_AS_UTC
JDBC_USE_SESSION_TIMEZONE
JSON_INDENT
JS_TREAT_INTEGER_AS_BIGINT
LOCK_TIMEOUT
MAX_CONCURRENCY_LEVEL
MAX_DATA_EXTENSION_TIME_IN_DAYS
MULTI_STATEMENT_COUNT
MIN_DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS
NETWORK_POLICY
SHARE_RESTRICTIONS
PERIODIC_DATA_REKEYING
PIPE_EXECUTION_PAUSED
PREVENT_UNLOAD_TO_INLINE_URL
PREVENT_UNLOAD_TO_INTERNAL_STAGES
QUERY_TAG
QUOTED_IDENTIFIERS_IGNORE_CASE
REQUIRE_STORAGE_INTEGRATION_FOR_STAGE_CREATION
REQUIRE_STORAGE_INTEGRATION_FOR_STAGE_OPERATION
ROWS_PER_RESULTSET
SAML_IDENTITY_PROVIDER
SIMULATED_DATA_SHARING_CONSUMER
SSO_LOGIN_PAGE
STATEMENT_QUEUED_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS
STATEMENT_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS
STRICT_JSON_OUTPUT
SUSPEND_TASK_AFTER_NUM_FAILURES
TIMESTAMP_DAY_IS_ALWAYS_24H
TIMESTAMP_INPUT_FORMAT
TIMESTAMP_LTZ_OUTPUT_FORMAT
TIMESTAMP_NTZ_OUTPUT_FORMAT
TIMESTAMP_OUTPUT_FORMAT
TIMESTAMP_TYPE_MAPPING
TIMESTAMP_TZ_OUTPUT_FORMAT
TIMEZONE
TIME_INPUT_FORMAT
TIME_OUTPUT_FORMAT
TRANSACTION_ABORT_ON_ERROR
TRANSACTION_DEFAULT_ISOLATION_LEVEL
TWO_DIGIT_CENTURY_START
UNSUPPORTED_DDL_ACTION
USE_CACHED_RESULT
USER_TASK_MANAGED_INITIAL_WAREHOUSE_SIZE
USER_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS
WEEK_OF_YEAR_POLICY
WEEK_START

Parameter Hierarchy and Types¶

This section describes the different types of parameters (Account, Session, and Object) and the levels at which each type can be set.

The following diagram illustrates the hierarchical relationship between the different parameter types and how individual parameters can be overridden at each level:

Account Parameters¶

Account parameters can be set only at the account level by users with the appropriate administrator role. Account parameters are set using the ALTER ACCOUNT command.

Snowflake provides the following account parameters:

Parameter	Notes
ALLOW_CLIENT_MFA_CACHING
ALLOW_ID_TOKEN	Used to enable connection caching in browser-based single sign-on (SSO) for Snowflake-provided clients
CLIENT_ENCRYPTION_KEY_SIZE	Used for encryption of files staged for data loading or unloading; might require additional installation and configuration (see description for details).
ENABLE_INTERNAL_STAGES_PRIVATELINK	Allows the SYSTEM$GET_PRIVATELINK_CONFIG function to return the `private-internal-stages` key in the query result.
ENFORCE_SESSION_POLICY	Used to enforce a session policy in the classic web interface and at query runtime.
EXTERNAL_OAUTH_ADD_PRIVILEGED_ROLES_TO_BLOCKED_LIST
INITIAL_REPLICATION_SIZE_LIMIT_IN_TB
MIN_DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS	Used to set the minimum data retention period for retaining historical data for Time Travel operations.
NETWORK_POLICY	This is the only account parameter that can be set by either account administrators (i.e users with the ACCOUNTADMIN system role) or security administrators (i.e users with the SECURITYADMIN system role). . For more information, see Object Parameters.
PERIODIC_DATA_REKEYING
PREVENT_UNLOAD_TO_INLINE_URL
REQUIRE_STORAGE_INTEGRATION_FOR_STAGE_CREATION
REQUIRE_STORAGE_INTEGRATION_FOR_STAGE_OPERATION
SSO_LOGIN_PAGE

Note

By default, account parameters are not displayed in the output of SHOW PARAMETERS. For more information about viewing account parameters, see Viewing the Parameters and Their Values (in this topic).

Session Parameters¶

Most parameters are session parameters, which can be set at the following levels:

Account: Account administrators can use the ALTER ACCOUNT command to set session parameters for the account. The values set for the account default to individual users and their sessions.
User: Administrators with the appropriate privileges (typically SECURITYADMIN role) can use the ALTER USER command to override session parameters for individual users. The values set for a user default to any sessions started by the user. In addition, users can override default sessions parameters for themselves using ALTER USER.
Session: Users can use the ALTER SESSION to explicitly set session parameters within their sessions.

Note

By default, only session parameters are displayed in the output of SHOW PARAMETERS. For more information about viewing account and object parameters, see Viewing the Parameters and Their Values (in this topic).

Object Parameters¶

Object parameters can be set at the following levels:

Account: Account administrators can use the ALTER ACCOUNT command to set object parameters for the account. The values set for the account default to the objects created in the account.
Object: Users with the appropriate privileges can use the corresponding CREATE <object> or ALTER <object> commands to override object parameters for an individual object.

Snowflake provides the following object parameters:

Parameter	Object Type	Notes
DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS	Database, Schema, Table
DEFAULT_DDL_COLLATION	Database, Schema, Table
MAX_CONCURRENCY_LEVEL	Warehouse
MAX_DATA_EXTENSION_TIME_IN_DAYS	Database, Schema, Table
PIPE_EXECUTION_PAUSED	Schema, Pipe
PREVENT_UNLOAD_TO_INTERNAL_STAGES	User
STATEMENT_QUEUED_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS	Warehouse	Also a session parameter (i.e. can be set at both the object and session levels). For inheritance and override details, see the parameter description.
STATEMENT_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS	Warehouse	Also a session parameter (i.e. can be set at both the object and session levels). For inheritance and override details, see the parameter description.
NETWORK_POLICY	User	This is the only user parameter that can be set by either account administrators (i.e users with the ACCOUNTADMIN system role) or security administrators (i.e users with the SECURITYADMIN system role). . Note that if this parameter is set on the account and a user in the same account, the user-level network policy overrides the account-level network policy.
SHARE_RESTRICTIONS	Share	This parameter can be set by either account administrators (i.e users with the ACCOUNTADMIN system role) or a role with the OVERRIDE SHARE RESTRICTIONS privilege.
SUSPEND_TASK_AFTER_NUM_FAILURES	Database, Schema, Task
USER_TASK_MANAGED_INITIAL_WAREHOUSE_SIZE	Database, Schema, Task
USER_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS	Database, Schema, Task

Note

By default, object parameters are not displayed in the output of SHOW PARAMETERS. For more information about viewing object parameters, see Viewing the Parameters and Their Values (in this topic).

Viewing the Parameters and Their Values¶

Snowflake provides the SHOW PARAMETERS command, which displays a list of the parameters, along with the current and default values for each parameter. The command can be called with different options to determine the type of parameter displayed.

Viewing Session and Object Parameters¶

By default, the command displays only session parameters:

SHOW PARAMETERS;

To display the object parameters for a specific object, include an IN clause with the object type and name. For example:

SHOW PARAMETERS IN DATABASE mydb;

SHOW PARAMETERS IN WAREHOUSE mywh;

Viewing All Parameters¶

To display all parameters, including account and object parameters, include an IN ACCOUNT clause:

SHOW PARAMETERS IN ACCOUNT;

Limiting the List of Parameters by Name¶

The command also supports using a LIKE clause to limit the list of parameters by name. For example:

To display the session parameters whose names contain “time”:
SHOW PARAMETERS LIKE '%time%';
To display all the parameters whose names start with “time”:
SHOW PARAMETERS LIKE 'time%' IN ACCOUNT;

Note

The LIKE clause must come before the IN clause.

ABORT_DETACHED_QUERY¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Specifies the action that Snowflake performs for in-progress queries if connectivity is lost due to abrupt termination of a session (e.g. network outage, browser termination, service interruption).

Values

TRUE: In-progress queries are aborted 5 minutes after connectivity is lost.

FALSE: In-progress queries are completed.

Default

FALSE

Note

If the user explicitly closes the connection:
- All in-progress synchronous queries are aborted immediately regardless of the parameter value.
- When the value is set to FALSE, asynchronous queries continue to run until they complete, until they are canceled, or until the two-day maximum run time expires.
Most queries require compute resources to execute. These resources are provided by virtual warehouses, which consume credits while running. With a value of FALSE, if the session terminates, warehouses might continue running and consuming credits to complete any queries that were in progress at the time the session terminated.

ALLOW_CLIENT_MFA_CACHING¶

Type

Account — Can only be set for Account

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Specifies whether an MFA token can be saved in the client-side operating system keystore to promote continuous, secure connectivity without users needing to respond to an MFA prompt at the start of each connection attempt to Snowflake. For details and the list of supported Snowflake-provided clients, see Using MFA Token Caching to Minimize the Number of Prompts During Authentication — Optional.

Values

TRUE: Stores an MFA token in the client-side operating system keystore to enable the client application to use the MFA token whenever a new connection is established. While true, users are not prompted to respond to additional MFA prompts.

FALSE: Does not store an MFA token. Users must respond to an MFA prompt whenever the client application establishes a new connection with Snowflake.

Default

FALSE

ALLOW_ID_TOKEN¶

Type

Account — Can be set only for Account

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Specifies whether a connection token can be saved in the client-side operating system keystore to promote continuous, secure connectivity without users needing to enter login credentials at the start of each connection attempt to Snowflake. For details and the list of supported Snowflake-provided clients, see Using Connection Caching to Minimize the Number of Prompts for Authentication — Optional.

Values

TRUE: Stores a connection token in the client-side operating system keystore to enable the client application to perform browser-based SSO without prompting users to authenticate whenever a new connection is established.

FALSE: Does not store a connection token. Users are prompted to authenticate whenever the client application establishes a new connection with Snowflake. SSO to Snowflake is still possible if this parameter is set to false.

Default

FALSE

AUTOCOMMIT¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Specifies whether autocommit is enabled for the session. Autocommit determines whether a DML statement, when executed without an active transaction, is automatically committed after the statement successfully completes. For more information, see Transactions.

Values

TRUE: Autocommit is enabled.

FALSE: Autocommit is disabled, meaning DML statements must be explicitly committed or rolled back.

Default

TRUE

AUTOCOMMIT_API_SUPPORTED (View-only)¶

Type

N/A

Data Type

Boolean

Description

For Snowflake internal use only. View-only parameter that indicates whether API support for autocommit is enabled for your account. If the value is TRUE, you can enable or disable autocommit through the APIs for the following drivers/connectors:

BINARY_INPUT_FORMAT¶

Type: Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session
Data Type: String (Constant)
Description: The format of VARCHAR values passed as input to VARCHAR-to-BINARY conversion functions. For more information, see Binary Input and Output.
Values: HEX , BASE64 , or UTF8 / UTF-8
Default: HEX

BINARY_OUTPUT_FORMAT¶

Type: Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session
Data Type: String (Constant)
Description: The format for VARCHAR values returned as output by BINARY-to-VARCHAR conversion functions. For more information, see Binary Input and Output.
Values: HEX or BASE64
Default: HEX

CLIENT_ENABLE_LOG_INFO_STATEMENT_PARAMETERS¶

Type

Session — Can be set only for Session

Data Type

Boolean

Clients

JDBC

Description

Enables users to log the data values bound to PreparedStatements.

To see the values, you must not only set this session-level parameter to TRUE, but also set the connection parameter named TRACING to either INFO or ALL.

Set TRACING to ALL to see all debugging information and all binding information.
Set TRACING to INFO to see the binding parameter values and less other debug information.

Caution

If you bind confidential information, such as medical diagnoses or passwords, that information is logged. Snowflake recommends making sure that the log file is secure, or only using test data, when you set this parameter to TRUE.

Values

TRUE or FALSE.

Default

FALSE

CLIENT_ENCRYPTION_KEY_SIZE¶

Type: Account — Can be set only for Account
Data Type: Integer
Clients: Any
Description: Specifies the AES encryption key size, in bits, used by Snowflake to encrypt/decrypt files stored in internal stages (for loading/unloading data).
Values: 128 or 256
Default: 128

Note

This parameter is not used for encrypting/decrypting files stored in external stages (i.e. S3 buckets or Azure containers). Encryption/decryption of these files is accomplished using an external encryption key explicitly specified in the COPY command or in the named external stage referenced in the command.
If you are using the JDBC driver and you wish to set this parameter to 256 (for strong encryption), additional JCE policy files must be installed on each client machine from which data is loaded/unloaded. For more information about installing the required files, see Java Requirements for the JDBC Driver.
If you are using the Python connector (or SnowSQL) and you wish to set this parameter to 256 (for strong encryption), no additional installation or configuration tasks are required.

CLIENT_MEMORY_LIMIT¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

Integer

Clients

JDBC, ODBC

Description

Parameter that specifies the maximum amount of memory the JDBC driver or ODBC driver should use for the result set from queries (in MB).

For the JDBC driver:

To simplify JVM memory management, the parameter sets a global maximum memory usage limit for all queries.
CLIENT_RESULT_CHUNK_SIZE specifies the maximum size of each set (or chunk) of query results to download (in MB). The driver might require additional memory to process a chunk; if so, it will adjust memory usage during runtime to process at least one thread/query. Verify that CLIENT_MEMORY_LIMIT is set significantly higher than CLIENT_RESULT_CHUNK_SIZE to ensure sufficient memory is available.

For the ODBC driver:

This parameter is supported in version 2.22.0 and higher.
CLIENT_RESULT_CHUNK_SIZE is not supported.

Note

The driver will attempt to honor the parameter value, but will cap usage at 80% of your system memory.
The memory usage limit set in this parameter does not apply to any other JDBC or ODBC driver operations (e.g. connecting to the database, preparing a query, or PUT and GET statements).

Values

Any valid number of megabytes.

Default

1536 (effectively 1.5 GB)

Most users should not need to set this parameter. If this parameter is not set by the user, the driver starts with the default specified above.

In addition, the JDBC driver actively manages its memory conservatively to avoid using up all available memory.

CLIENT_METADATA_REQUEST_USE_CONNECTION_CTX¶

Type

Session — Can be set for User » Session

Data Type

Boolean

Clients

JDBC, ODBC

Description

For specific ODBC functions and JDBC methods, this parameter can change the default search scope from all databases/schemas to the current database/schema. The narrower search typically returns fewer rows and executes more quickly.

For example, the getTables() JDBC method accepts a database name and schema name as arguments, and returns the names of the tables in the database and schema. If the database and schema arguments are null, then by default, the method searches all databases and all schemas in the account. Setting CLIENT_METADATA_REQUEST_USE_CONNECTION_CTX to TRUE narrows the search to the current database and schema specified by the connection context.

In essence, setting this parameter to TRUE creates the following precedence for database and schema:

Values passed as arguments to the functions/methods.

Values specified in the connection context (if any).

Default (all databases and all schemas).

For more details, see below.

This parameter applies to the following:

JDBC driver methods (for the DatabaseMetaData class):
- getColumns
- getCrossReference
- getExportedKeys
- getForeignKeys
- getFunctions
- getImportedKeys
- getPrimaryKeys
- getSchemas
- getTables
ODBC driver functions:
- SQLTables
- SQLColumns
- SQLPrimaryKeys
- SQLForeignKeys
- SQLGetFunctions
- SQLProcedures

Values

TRUE: If the database and schema arguments are null, then the driver retrieves metadata for only the database and schema specified by the connection context.

The interaction is described in more detail in the table below.

FALSE: If the database and schema arguments are null, then the driver retrieves metadata for all databases and schemas in the account.

Default

FALSE

Additional Notes

The connection context refers to the current database and schema for the session, which can be set using any of the following options:

Specify the default namespace for the user who connects to Snowflake (and initiates the session). This can be set for the user through the CREATE USER or ALTER USER command, but must be set before the user connects.
Specify the database and schema when connecting to Snowflake through the driver.
Issue a USE DATABASE or USE SCHEMA command within the session.

If the database or schema was specified by more than one of these, then the most recent one applies.

When CLIENT_METADATA_REQUEST_USE_CONNECTION_CTX is set to TRUE:

database argument	schema argument	Database used	Schema used
Non-null	Non-null	Argument	Argument
Non-null	Null	Argument	All schemas
Null	Non-null	Connection context	Argument
Null	Null	Connection context	Session context

Note

For the JDBC driver, this behavior applies to version 3.6.27 (and higher). For the ODBC driver, this behavior applies to version 2.12.96 (and higher).

If you want to search only the connection context database, but want to search all schemas within that database, see CLIENT_METADATA_USE_SESSION_DATABASE.

CLIENT_METADATA_USE_SESSION_DATABASE¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Session

Data Type

Boolean

Clients

JDBC

Description

This parameter applies to only the methods affected by CLIENT_METADATA_REQUEST_USE_CONNECTION_CTX.

This parameter applies only when both of the following conditions are met:

CLIENT_METADATA_REQUEST_USE_CONNECTION_CTX is FALSE or unset.
No database or schema is passed to the relevant ODBC function or JDBC method.

For specific ODBC functions and JDBC methods, this parameter can change the default search scope from all databases to the current database. The narrower search typically returns fewer rows and executes more quickly.

For more details, see below.

Values

TRUE:

The driver searches all schemas in the connection context’s database. (For more details about the connection context, see the documentation for CLIENT_METADATA_REQUEST_USE_CONNECTION_CTX.)

FALSE:

The driver searches all schemas in all databases.

Default

FALSE

Additional Notes

When the database is null and the schema is null and CLIENT_METADATA_REQUEST_USE_CONNECTION_CTX is FALSE:

CLIENT_METADATA_USE_SESSION_DATABASE

Behavior

FALSE

All schemas in all databases are searched.

TRUE

All schemas in the current database are searched.

CLIENT_PREFETCH_THREADS¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

Integer

Clients

JDBC, ODBC, Python

Description

Parameter that specifies the number of threads used by the client to pre-fetch large result sets. The driver will attempt to honor the parameter value, but defines the minimum and maximum values (depending on your system’s resources) to improve performance.

Values

1 to 10

Default

4

Most users should not need to set this parameter. If this parameter is not set by the user, the driver starts with the default specified above, but also actively manages its thread count conservatively to avoid using up all available memory.

CLIENT_RESULT_CHUNK_SIZE¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

Integer

Clients

JDBC

Description

Parameter that specifies the maximum size of each set (or chunk) of query results to download (in MB). The JDBC driver downloads query results in chunks.

Also see CLIENT_MEMORY_LIMIT.

Values

48 to 160

Default

160

Most users should not need to set this parameter. If this parameter is not set by the user, the driver starts with the default specified above, but also actively manages its memory conservatively to avoid using up all available memory.

CLIENT_RESULT_COLUMN_CASE_INSENSITIVE¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

Boolean

Clients

JDBC

Description

Parameter that indicates whether to match column name case-insensitively in ResultSet.get* methods in JDBC.

Values

TRUE: matches column names case-insensitively.

FALSE: matches column names case-sensitively.

Default

FALSE

CLIENT_SESSION_KEEP_ALIVE¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

Boolean

Clients

JDBC, ODBC, Python, Node.js

Description

Parameter that indicates whether to force a user to log in again after a period of inactivity in the session.

Values

TRUE: Snowflake keeps the session active indefinitely as long as the connection is active, even if there is no activity from the user.

FALSE: The user must log in again after four hours of inactivity.

Default

FALSE

Note

Currently, the parameter cannot be set at the session level by executing the ALTER SESSION command. For information on setting the parameter at the session level, see the client documentation:

CLIENT_SESSION_KEEP_ALIVE_HEARTBEAT_FREQUENCY¶

Type: Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session
Data Type: Integer
Clients: SnowSQL, JDBC, Python, Node.js
Description: Number of seconds in-between client attempts to update the token for the session.
Values: 900 to 3600
Default: 3600

CLIENT_TIMESTAMP_TYPE_MAPPING¶

Type: Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session
Data Type: String (Constant)
Clients: Any
Description: Specifies the TIMESTAMP_* variation to use when binding timestamp variables for JDBC or ODBC applications that use the bind API to load data.
Values: TIMESTAMP_LTZ or TIMESTAMP_NTZ
Default: TIMESTAMP_LTZ

DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS¶

Type

Object (for databases, schemas, and tables) — Can be set for Account » Database » Schema » Table

Data Type

Integer

Description

Number of days for which Snowflake retains historical data for performing Time Travel actions (SELECT, CLONE, UNDROP) on the object. A value of 0 effectively disables Time Travel for the specified database, schema, or table. For more information, see Understanding & Using Time Travel.

Values

0 or 1 (for Standard Edition)

0 to 90 (for Enterprise Edition or higher)

Default

1

DATE_INPUT_FORMAT¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

String

Description

Specifies the input format for the DATE data type. For more information, see Date and Time Input / Output.

Values

Any valid, supported date format or AUTO

(AUTO specifies that Snowflake attempts to automatically detect the format of dates stored in the system during the session)

Default

AUTO

DATE_OUTPUT_FORMAT¶

Type: Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session
Data Type: String
Description: Specifies the display format for the DATE data type. For more information, see Date and Time Input / Output.
Values: Any valid, supported date format
Default: YYYY-MM-DD

DEFAULT_DDL_COLLATION¶

Type

Object (for databases, schemas, and tables) — Can be set for Account » Database » Schema » Table

Data Type

String

Description

Sets the default collation used for the following DDL operations:

CREATE TABLE
ALTER TABLE … ADD COLUMN

Setting this parameter forces all subsequently-created columns in the affected objects (table, schema, database, or account) to have the specified collation as the default, unless the collation for the column is explicitly defined in the DDL.

For example, if DEFAULT_DDL_COLLATION = 'en-ci', then the following two statements are equivalent:

create table test(c1 integer, c2 string, c3 string collate 'en-cs');

create table test(c1 integer, c2 string collate 'en-ci', c3 string collate 'en-cs');

Values

Any valid, supported collation specification.

Default

Empty string

Note

To set the default collation for the account, use the following command:

ALTER ACCOUNT

The default collation for table columns can be set at the table, schema, or database level during creation or any time afterwards:

ENABLE_INTERNAL_STAGES_PRIVATELINK¶

Type

Account — Can be set only for Account

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Specifies whether the SYSTEM$GET_PRIVATELINK_CONFIG function returns the private-internal-stages key in the query result. The corresponding value in the query result is used during the configuration process for Private Connectivity to Snowflake Internal Stages.

Values

TRUE: Returns the private-internal-stages key and value in the query result.

FALSE: Does not return the private-internal-stages key and value in the query result.

Default

FALSE

ENABLE_UNLOAD_PHYSICAL_TYPE_OPTIMIZATION¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Specifies whether to set the schema for unloaded Parquet files based on the logical column data types (i.e. the types in the unload SQL query or source table) or on the unloaded column values (i.e. the smallest data types and precision that support the values in the output columns of the unload SQL statement or source table).

Values

TRUE: The schema of unloaded Parquet data files is determined by the column values in the unload SQL query or source table. Snowflake optimizes table columns by setting the smallest precision that accepts all of the values. The unloader follows this pattern when writing values to Parquet files. The data type and precision of an output column are set to the smallest data type and precision that support its values in the unload SQL statement or source table. Accept this setting for better performance and smaller data files.

FALSE: The schema is determined by the logical column data types. Set this value for a consistent output file schema.

Default

TRUE

ENFORCE_SESSION_POLICY¶

TYPE

Account — Can be set only for Account

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Enforces a session policy in the classic web interface and at query runtime.

Values

TRUE: Enables the session policy enforcement.

FALSE: Disables the session policy enforcement.

Default

FALSE

For more information, see Enforcing a session policy.

ERROR_ON_NONDETERMINISTIC_MERGE¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Specifies whether to return an error when the MERGE command is used to update or delete a target row that joins multiple source rows and the system cannot determine the action to perform on the target row.

Values

TRUE: An error is returned that includes values from one of the target rows that caused the error.

FALSE: No error is returned and the merge completes successfully, but the results of the merge are nondeterministic.

Default

TRUE

ERROR_ON_NONDETERMINISTIC_UPDATE¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Specifies whether to return an error when the UPDATE command is used to update a target row that joins multiple source rows and the system cannot determine the action to perform on the target row.

Values

TRUE: An error is returned that includes values from one of the target rows that caused the error.

FALSE: No error is returned and the update completes, but the results of the update are nondeterministic.

Default

FALSE

EXTERNAL_OAUTH_ADD_PRIVILEGED_ROLES_TO_BLOCKED_LIST¶

Type

Account — Can be set only for Account

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Determines whether the ACCOUNTADMIN and SECURITYADMIN roles can be used as the primary role when creating a Snowflake session based on the access token from the External OAuth authorization server.

Values

TRUE: The ACCOUNTADMIN and SECURITYADMIN roles are added to the EXTERNAL_OAUTH_BLOCKED_ROLES_LIST property of the External OAuth security integration, which means these roles cannot be used as the primary role when creating a Snowflake session using External OAuth authentication.

FALSE: Removes ACCOUNTADMIN and SECURITYADMIN from the list of blocked roles defined by the EXTERNAL_OAUTH_BLOCKED_ROLES_LIST property of the External OAuth security integration.

Default

TRUE

GEOGRAPHY_OUTPUT_FORMAT¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

String (Constant)

Description

Display format for GEOGRAPHY values.

For EWKT and EWKB, the SRID is always 4326 in the output. See the note on EWKT and EWKB handling.

Values

GeoJSON, WKT, WKB, EWKT, or EWKB

Default

GeoJSON

GEOMETRY_OUTPUT_FORMAT¶

Type: Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session
Data Type: String (Constant)
Description: Display format for GEOMETRY values.
Values: GeoJSON, WKT, WKB, EWKT, or EWKB
Default: GeoJSON

INITIAL_REPLICATION_SIZE_LIMIT_IN_TB¶

Type

Account — Can be set only for Account

Data Type

Number.

Description

Sets the maximum estimated size limit for the initial replication of a primary database to a secondary database (in TB). Set this parameter on any account that stores a secondary database. This size limit helps prevent accounts from accidentally incurring large database replication charges.

To remove the size limit, set the value to 0.0.

Note that there is currently no default size limit applied to subsequent refreshes of a secondary database.

Values

0.0 and above with a scale of at least 1 (e.g. 20.5, 32.25, 33.333, etc.).

Default

10.0

JDBC_TREAT_DECIMAL_AS_INT¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Specifies how JDBC processes columns that have a scale of zero (0).

Values

TRUE: JDBC processes a column whose scale is zero as BIGINT.

FALSE: JDBC processes a column whose scale is zero as DECIMAL.

Default

TRUE

JDBC_TREAT_TIMESTAMP_NTZ_AS_UTC¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Specifies how JDBC processes TIMESTAMP_NTZ values.

By default, when the JDBC driver fetches a value of type TIMESTAMP_NTZ from Snowflake, the driver converts the value from UTC to the current timezone, based on the user’s session.

Users who wish to keep TIMESTAMP_NTZ values in UTC can set this parameter to TRUE.

This parameter applies only to the JDBC driver.

Values

TRUE: The driver does not change the TIMESTAMP_NTZ value; the value stays in UTC.

FALSE: The driver converts the TIMESTAMP_NTZ value from UTC to the user’s current timezone.

Default

FALSE

JDBC_USE_SESSION_TIMEZONE¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Specifies whether the JDBC Driver uses the time zone of the JVM or the time zone of the session (specified by the TIMEZONE parameter) for the getDate(), getTime(), and getTimestamp() methods of the ResultSet class.

Values

TRUE: The JDBC Driver uses the time zone of the session.

FALSE: The JDBC Driver uses the time zone of the JVM.

Default

TRUE

JSON_INDENT¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

Integer

Description

Specifies the number of blank spaces to indent each new element in JSON output in the session. Also specifies whether to insert newline characters after each element.

Values

0 to 16

(a value of 0 returns compact output by removing all blank spaces and newline characters from the output)

Default

2

Note

This parameter does not affect JSON unloaded from a table into a file using the COPY INTO <location> command. The command always unloads JSON data in the ndjson format:

Each record from the table separated by a newline character.
Within each record, compact formatting (i.e. no spaces or newline characters).

JS_TREAT_INTEGER_AS_BIGINT¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Session

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Specifies how the Snowflake Node.js Driver processes numeric columns that have a scale of zero (0), for example INTEGER or NUMBER(p, 0).

Values

TRUE: JavaScript processes a column whose scale is zero as Bigint.

FALSE: JavaScript processes a column whose scale is zero as Number.

Default

FALSE

Note

By default, Snowflake INTEGER columns (including BIGINT, NUMBER(p, 0), etc.) are converted to JavaScript’s Number data type. However, the largest legal Snowflake integer values are larger than the largest legal JavaScript Number values. To convert Snowflake INTEGER columns to JavaScript Bigint, which can store larger values than JavaScript Number, set the session parameter JS_TREAT_INTEGER_AS_BIGINT.

For examples of how to use this parameter, see Fetching Integer Data Types as Bigint.

LOCK_TIMEOUT¶

Type: Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session
Data Type: Number
Description: Number of seconds to wait while trying to lock a resource, before timing out and aborting the statement.
Values: 0 to any number (i.e. no limit) A value of 0 disables lock waiting (i.e. the statement must acquire the lock immediately or abort). If multiple resources need to be locked by the statement, the timeout applies separately to each lock attempt
Default: 43200 (i.e. 12 hours)

MAX_CONCURRENCY_LEVEL¶

Type

Object (for warehouses) — Can be set for Account » Warehouse

Data Type

Number

Description

Specifies the concurrency level for SQL statements (i.e. queries and DML) executed by a warehouse. When the level is reached, the operation performed depends on whether the warehouse is a single-cluster or multi-cluster warehouse:

Single-cluster or multi-cluster (in Maximized mode): Statements are queued until already-allocated resources are freed or additional resources are provisioned, which can be accomplished by increasing the size of the warehouse.
Multi-cluster (in Auto-scale mode): Additional clusters are started.

MAX_CONCURRENCY_LEVEL can be used in conjunction with the STATEMENT_QUEUED_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS parameter to ensure a warehouse is never backlogged.

Note that this parameter does not limit the number of statements that can be executed concurrently by a warehouse cluster. Instead, it serves as an upper-boundary to protect against over-allocation of resources. As each statement is submitted to a warehouse, Snowflake allocates resources for executing the statement; if there aren’t enough resources available, the statement is queued or additional clusters are started, depending on the warehouse.

The actual number of statements executed concurrently by a warehouse might be more or less than the specified level:

Smaller, more basic statements: More statements might execute concurrently because small statements generally execute on a subset of the available compute resources in a warehouse. This means they only count as a fraction towards the concurrency level.
Larger, more complex statements: Fewer statements might execute concurrently.

Default

8

Tip

This value is a default only and can be changed at any time:

Lowering the concurrency level for a warehouse increases the compute resource allocation per statement, which potentially results in faster query performance, particularly for large/complex and multi-statement queries.
Raising the concurrency level for a warehouse decreases the compute resource allocation per statement; however, it does not necessarily limit the total number of concurrent queries that can be executed by the warehouse, nor does it necessarily improve total warehouse performance, which depends on the nature of the queries being executed.

Note that, as described earlier, this parameter impacts multi-cluster warehouses (in Auto-scale mode) because Snowflake automatically starts a new cluster within the multi-cluster warehouse to avoid queuing. Thus, lowering the concurrency level for a multi-cluster warehouse (in Auto-scale mode) potentially increases the number of active clusters at any time.

Also, remember that Snowflake automatically allocates resources for each statement when it is submitted and the allocated amount is dictated by the individual requirements of the statement. Based on this, and through observations of user query patterns over time, we’ve selected a default that balances performance and resource usage.

As such, before changing the default, we recommend that you test the change by adjusting the parameter in small increments and observing the impact against a representative set of your queries.

MAX_DATA_EXTENSION_TIME_IN_DAYS¶

Type: Object (for databases, schemas, and tables) — Can be set for Account » Database » Schema » Table
Data Type: Integer
Description: Maximum number of days for which Snowflake can extend the data retention period for tables to prevent streams on the tables from becoming stale. By default, if the DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS setting for a source table is less than 14 days, and a stream has not been consumed, Snowflake temporarily extends this period to the stream’s offset, up to a maximum of 14 days, regardless of the Snowflake Edition for your account. The MAX_DATA_EXTENSION_TIME_IN_DAYS parameter enables you to limit this automatic extension period to control storage costs for data retention or for compliance reasons.

This parameter can be set at the account, database, schema, and table levels. Note that setting the parameter at the account or schema level only affects tables for which the parameter has not already been explicitly set at a lower level (e.g. at the table level by the table owner). A value of 0 effectively disables the automatic extension for the specified database, schema, or table. For more information about streams and staleness, see Change Tracking Using Table Streams.

Values: 0 to 90 (i.e. 90 days) — a value of 0 disables the automatic extension of the data retention period. To increase the maximum value for tables in your account, contact Snowflake Support.
Default: 14

Note

This parameter can cause data to be retained longer than the default data retention. Before increasing it, confirm that the new value fits your compliance requirements.

MULTI_STATEMENT_COUNT¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

Integer (Constant)

Clients

SQL API, JDBC, ODBC

Description

Number of statements to execute when using the multi-statement capability.

Values

0: Variable number of statements.

1: One statement.

More than 1: When MULTI_STATEMENT_COUNT is set as a session parameter, you can specify the exact number of statements to execute.

Negative numbers are not permitted.

Default

1

MIN_DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS¶

Type

Account — Can be set only for Account

Data Type

Integer

Description

Minimum number of days for which Snowflake retains historical data for performing Time Travel actions (SELECT, CLONE, UNDROP) on an object. If a minimum number of days for data retention is set on an account, the data retention period for an object is determined by MAX(DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS, MIN_DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS).

For more information, see Understanding & Using Time Travel.

Values

0 or 1 (for Standard Edition)

0 to 90 (for Enterprise Edition or higher)

Default

0

Note

This parameter only applies to permanent tables and does not apply to the following objects:
- Transient tables
- Temporary tables
- External tables
- Materialized views
- Streams
This parameter can only be set and unset by account administrators (i.e. users with the ACCOUNTADMIN role or other role that is granted the ACCOUNTADMIN role).
Setting the minimum data retention time does not alter any existing DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS parameter value set on databases, schemas, or tables. The effective retention time of a database, schema, or table is MAX(DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS, MIN_DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS).

NETWORK_POLICY¶

Type: Account — Can be set only for Account (can be set by account administrators and security administrators)
Type: Object (for users) — Can be set for Account » User
Data Type: String
Description: Specifies the network policy to enforce for your account. Network policies enable restricting access to your account based on users’ IP address. For more details, see Network Policies.
Values: Any existing network policy (created using CREATE NETWORK POLICY)
Default: None

Note

This is the only account parameter that can be set by security administrators (i.e users with the SECURITYADMIN system role) or higher.

PERIODIC_DATA_REKEYING¶

Type

Account — Can be set only for Account

Data Type

Boolean

Description

This parameter only applies to Enterprise Edition (or higher). It enables/disables re-encryption of table data with new keys on a yearly basis to provide additional levels of data protection.

You can enable and disable rekeying at any time. Enabling/disabling rekeying does not result in gaps in your encrypted data:

If rekeying is enabled for a period of time and then disabled, all data already tagged for rekeying is rekeyed, but no further data is rekeyed until you re-enable it again.

If rekeying is re-enabled, Snowflake automatically rekeys all data that has keys which meet the criteria (i.e. key is older than one year).

For more information about rekeying of encrypted data, see Data Encryption.

Values

TRUE: Data is rekeyed after one year has passed since the data was last encrypted. Rekeying occurs in the background so no down-time is experienced and the affected data/table is always available.

FALSE: Data is not rekeyed.

Default

FALSE

Note

There are charges associated with data rekeying because, after data is rekeyed, the old data (with the previous key encryption) is maintained in Fail-safe for the standard time period (7 days). For this reason, periodic rekeying is disabled by default. To enable periodic rekeying, you must explicitly enable it.

Also, Fail-safe charges for rekeying are not listed individually in your monthly statement; they are included in the Fail-safe total for your account each month.

For more information about Fail-safe, see Understanding & Viewing Fail-safe.

PIPE_EXECUTION_PAUSED¶

Type

Object — Can be set for Account » Schema » Pipe

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Specifies whether to pause a running pipe, primarily in preparation for transferring ownership of the pipe to a different role:

An account administrator (user with the ACCOUNTADMIN role) can set this parameter at the account level, effectively pausing or resuming all pipes in the account.
A user with the MODIFY privilege on a schema can pause or resume all pipes in the schema.
The pipe owner can set this parameter for a pipe.

Note that setting the parameter at the account or schema level only affects pipes for which the parameter has not already been explicitly set at a lower level (e.g. at the pipe level by the pipe owner).

This enables the practical use case in which an account administrator can pause all pipes at the account level, while a pipe owner can still have an individual pipe running.

Values

TRUE: Pauses the pipe. When the parameter is set to this value, the SYSTEM$PIPE_STATUS function shows the executionState as PAUSED. Note that the pipe owner can continue to submit files to a paused pipe; however, the files are not processed until the pipe is resumed.

FALSE: Resumes the pipe, but only if ownership of the pipe has not been transferred while it was paused. When the parameter is set to this value, the SYSTEM$PIPE_STATUS function shows the executionState as RUNNING.

If ownership of the pipe was transferred to another role after the pipe was paused, this parameter cannot be used to resume the pipe. Instead, use the SYSTEM$PIPE_FORCE_RESUME function to explicitly force the pipe to resume.

This enables the new owner to use SYSTEM$PIPE_STATUS to evaluate the pipe status (e.g. determine how many files are waiting to be loaded) before resuming the pipe.

Default

FALSE (pipes are running by default)

Note

In general, pipes do not need to paused, except for transferring ownership.

PREVENT_UNLOAD_TO_INLINE_URL¶

Type

Account — Can be set only for Account

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Specifies whether to prevent ad hoc data unload operations to external cloud storage locations (i.e. COPY INTO <location> statements that specify the cloud storage URL and access settings directly in the statement). For an example, see Unloading Data from a Table Directly to Files in an External Location.

Values

TRUE: COPY INTO <location> statements must reference either a named internal (Snowflake) or external stage or an internal user or table stage. A named external stage must store the cloud storage URL and access settings in its definition.

FALSE: Ad hoc data unload operations to external cloud storage locations are permitted.

Default

FALSE

PREVENT_UNLOAD_TO_INTERNAL_STAGES¶

Type

User — Can be set for Account » User

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Specifies whether to prevent data unload operations to internal (Snowflake) stages using COPY INTO <location> statements.

Values

TRUE: Unloading data from Snowflake tables to any internal stage, including user stages, table stages, or named internal stages is prevented.

FALSE: Unloading data to internal stages is permitted, limited only by the default restrictions of the stage type:

The current user can only unload data to their own user stage.

Users can only unload data to table stages when their active role has the OWNERSHIP privilege on the table.

Users can only unload data to named internal stages when their active role has the WRITE privilege on the stage.

Default

FALSE

QUERY_TAG¶

Type: Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session
Data Type: String (up to 2000 characters)
Description: Optional string that can be used to tag queries and other SQL statements executed within a session. The tags are displayed in the output of the QUERY_HISTORY , QUERY_HISTORY_BY_* functions.
Default: None

QUOTED_IDENTIFIERS_IGNORE_CASE¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Object — Can be set for Account » Database » Schema » Table

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Specifies whether letters in double-quoted object identifiers are stored and resolved as uppercase letters. By default, Snowflake preserves the case of alphabetic characters when storing and resolving double-quoted identifiers. (See Identifier Resolution.) You can use this parameter in situations in which third-party applications always use double quotes around identifiers.

Note

Changing this parameter from the default value can affect your ability to find objects that were previously created with double-quoted mixed case identifiers. See Impact of Changing the Parameter.

When set on a table, schema, or database, the setting only affects the evaluation of table names in the bodies of views and user-defined functions (UDFs). If your account uses double-quoted identifiers that should be treated as case-insensitive and you plan to share a view or UDF with an account that treats double-quoted identifiers as case-sensitive, you can set this on the view or UDF that you plan to share. This allows the other account to resolve the table names in the view or UDF correctly.

Values

TRUE: Letters in double-quoted identifiers are stored and resolved as uppercase letters.

FALSE: The case of letters in double-quoted identifiers is preserved. Snowflake resolves and stores the identifiers in the specified case.

For more information, see Identifier Resolution.

Default

FALSE

For example:

Identifier		Param set to `FALSE` (default)	Param set to `TRUE`
`"columnname"`	resolves to:	`columnname`	`COLUMNNAME`
`"columnName"`	resolves to:	`columnName`	`COLUMNNAME`
`"ColumnName"`	resolves to:	`ColumnName`	`COLUMNNAME`
`"COLUMNNAME"`	resolves to:	`COLUMNNAME`	`COLUMNNAME`

REQUIRE_STORAGE_INTEGRATION_FOR_STAGE_CREATION¶

Type

Account — Can be set only for Account

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Specifies whether to require a storage integration object as cloud credentials when creating a named external stage (using CREATE STAGE) to access a private cloud storage location.

Values

TRUE: Creating an external stage to access a private cloud storage location requires referencing a storage integration object as cloud credentials.

FALSE: Creating an external stage does not require referencing a storage integration object. Users can instead reference explicit cloud provider credentials, such as secret keys or access tokens, if they have been configured for the storage location.

Default

FALSE

REQUIRE_STORAGE_INTEGRATION_FOR_STAGE_OPERATION¶

Type

Account — Can be set only for Account

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Specifies whether to require using a named external stage that references a storage integration object as cloud credentials when loading data from or unloading data to a private cloud storage location.

Values

TRUE: Loading data from or unloading data to a private cloud storage location requires using a named external stage that references a storage integration object; specifying a named external stage that references explicit cloud provider credentials, such as secret keys or access tokens, produces a user error.

FALSE: Users can load data from or unload data to a private cloud storage location using a named external stage that references explicit cloud provider credentials.

If PREVENT_UNLOAD_TO_INLINE_URL is FALSE, then users can specify the explicit cloud provider credentials directly in the COPY statement.

Default

FALSE

ROWS_PER_RESULTSET¶

Type: Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session
Data Type: Number
Description: Specifies the maximum number of rows returned in a result set.
Values: 0 to any number (i.e. no limit) — a value of 0 specifies no maximum.
Default: 0

SAML_IDENTITY_PROVIDER¶

Type

Account — Can be set only for Account

Data Type

JSON

Description

Enables federated authentication. The parameter accepts a JSON object, enclosed in single quotes, with the following fields:

{
  "certificate": "",
  "issuer": "",
  "ssoUrl": "",
  "type"  : "",
  "label" : ""
}

Where:

certificate

Specifies the certificate (generated by the IdP) that verifies communication between the IdP and Snowflake.

issuer

Indicates the Issuer/EntityID of the IdP.

Optional.

For information on how to obtain this value in Okta and ADFS, see Configuring Snowflake to Use Federated Authentication.

ssoUrl

Specifies the URL endpoint (provided by the IdP) where Snowflake sends the SAML requests.

type

Specifies the type of IdP used for federated authentication ("OKTA" , "ADFS" , "Custom").

label

Specifies the button text for the IdP in the Snowflake login page. The default label is Single Sign On. If you change the default label, the label you specify can only contain alphanumeric characters (i.e. special characters and blank spaces are not currently supported).

Note that, if the "type" field is "Okta", a value for the label field does not need to be specified because Snowflake displays the Okta logo in the button.

For more information, including examples of setting the parameter, see Configuring Snowflake to Use Federated Authentication.

Default

None

SSO_LOGIN_PAGE¶

Type

Account — Can be set only for Account

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Disables preview mode for testing SSO (after enabling federated authentication) before rolling it out to users:

Values

TRUE: Preview mode is disabled and users will see the button for Snowflake-initiated SSO for your identity provider (as specified in SAML_IDENTITY_PROVIDER) in the Snowflake main login page.

FALSE: Preview mode is enabled and SSO can be tested using the following URL:

If your account is in US West: https://<account_identifier>.snowflakecomputing.com/console/login?fedpreview=true

If your account is in any other region: https://<account_identifier>.<region_id>.snowflakecomputing.com/console/login?fedpreview=true

For more information, see:

Default

FALSE

STATEMENT_QUEUED_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS¶

Type

Session and Object (for warehouses)

Can be set for Account » User » Session; can also be set for individual warehouses

Data Type

Number

Description

Amount of time, in seconds, a SQL statement (query, DDL, DML, etc.) remains queued for a warehouse before it is canceled by the system. This parameter can be used in conjunction with the MAX_CONCURRENCY_LEVEL parameter to ensure a warehouse is never backlogged.

The parameter can be set within the session hierarchy. It can also be set for a warehouse to control the queue timeout for all SQL statements processed by the warehouse. When the parameter is set for both a warehouse and a session, the lowest non-zero value is enforced. For example:

A warehouse has a queued timeout of 120 seconds.
The queued timeout for the session is set to 60 seconds.

The session timeout takes precedence (i.e. any statement submitted in the session is canceled after being queued for longer than 60 seconds).

Note

For runs of tasks, the USER_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS task parameter takes precedence over the STATEMENT_QUEUED_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS setting.

When comparing the values of these two parameters, note that STATEMENT_QUEUED_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS is set in units of seconds, while USER_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS uses units of milliseconds.

For more information about USER_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS, see the Optional Parameters section of CREATE TASK.

Values

0 to any number (i.e. no limit) — a value of 0 specifies that no timeout is enforced. A statement will remained queued as long as the queue persists.

Default

0 (i.e. no timeout)

STATEMENT_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS¶

Type

Session and Object (for warehouses)

Can be set for Account » User » Session; can also be set for individual warehouses

Data Type

Number

Description

Amount of time, in seconds, after which a running SQL statement (query, DDL, DML, etc.) is canceled by the system.

The parameter can be set within the session hierarchy. It can also be set for an individual warehouse to control the runtime for all SQL statements processed by the warehouse. When the parameter is set for both a warehouse and a session, the lowest non-zero value is enforced. For example:

A warehouse has a timeout of 1000 seconds.
The timeout for the session is set to 500 seconds.

The session timeout takes precedence (i.e. any statement submitted in the session is canceled after running for longer than 500 seconds).

Note

For runs of tasks:

If a task relies on a virtual warehouse for its compute resources and STATEMENT_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS is set at the warehouse level, then the effective timeout is the smaller of the following parameters:
- STATEMENT_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS
- USER_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS (parameter set on the task)
Otherwise, the USER_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS task parameter takes precedence over the STATEMENT_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS setting for task runs.

When comparing the values of these two parameters, note that STATEMENT_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS is set in units of seconds, while USER_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS uses units of milliseconds.

For more information about USER_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS, see the Optional Parameters section of CREATE TASK.

Values

0 to 604800 (i.e. 7 days) — a value of 0 specifies that the maximum timeout value is enforced.

Default

172800 (i.e. 2 days)

STRICT_JSON_OUTPUT¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

Boolean

Description

This parameter specifies whether JSON output in a session is compatible with the general standard (as described by http://json.org).

By design, Snowflake allows JSON input that contains non-standard values; however, these non-standard values might result in Snowflake outputting JSON that is incompatible with other platforms and languages. This parameter, when enabled, ensures that Snowflake outputs valid/compatible JSON.

Values

TRUE: Strict JSON output is enabled, enforcing the following behavior:

Missing and undefined values in input mapped to JSON NULL.

Non-finite numeric values in input (Infinity, -Infinity, NaN, etc.) mapped to strings with valid JavaScript representations. This enables compatibility with JavaScript and also allows conversion of these values back to numeric values.

FALSE: Strict JSON output is not enabled.

Default

FALSE

For example:

Non-standard JSON Input		Param set to `FALSE` (default)	Param set to `TRUE`
`[289, 2188,]`	outputs:	`[ 289, 2188, undefined ]`	`[ 289, 2188, null ]`
`[undefined, undefined]`	outputs:	`[ undefined, undefined ]`	`[ null, null ]`
`[Infinity,inf,-Infinity,-inf]`	outputs:	`[ Infinity, Infinity, -Infinity, -Infinity ]`	`[ "Infinity", "Infinity", "-Infinity", "-Infinity" ]`
`[NaN,nan]`	outputs:	`[ NaN, NaN ]`	`[ "NaN", "NaN" ]`

SUSPEND_TASK_AFTER_NUM_FAILURES¶

Type

Object (for databases, schemas, and tasks) — Can be set for Account » Database » Schema » Task

Data Type

Integer

Description

Number of consecutive failed task runs after which a standalone task or DAG root task is suspended automatically. Failed task runs include runs in which the SQL code in the task body either produces a user error or times out. Task runs that are skipped, canceled, or that fail due to a system error are considered indeterminate and are not included in the count of failed task runs.

When the parameter is set to a value greater than 0, the following behavior applies to runs of standalone tasks or DAG root tasks:

A standalone task is automatically suspended after the specified number of consecutive task runs either fail or time out.
A root task is automatically suspended after the run of any single task in a DAG fails or times out the specified number of times in consecutive runs.

The setting applies to tasks that rely on either Snowflake-managed compute resources (i.e. serverless compute model) or user-managed compute resources (i.e. a virtual warehouse).

When you explictly set the parameter value at the account, database, or schema level, the change is applied to tasks contained in the modified object during their next scheduled run (including any child task in a DAG run in progress).

Suspending a standalone task resets its count of failed task runs. Suspending a root DAG task resets the count for each task in the DAG.

Values

0 - No upper limit.

Default

0 (no automatic suspension)

TIMESTAMP_DAY_IS_ALWAYS_24H¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Specifies whether the DATEADD function (and its aliases) always consider a day to be exactly 24 hours for expressions that span multiple days.

Values

TRUE: A day is always exactly 24 hours.

FALSE: A day is not always 24 hours.

Default

FALSE

Important

If set to TRUE, the actual time of day might not be preserved when daylight saving time (DST) is in effect. For example:

alter session set TIMESTAMP_DAY_IS_ALWAYS_24H = true;

-- With DST beginning on 2018-03-11 at 2 AM, America/Los_Angeles time zone
select dateadd(day, 1, '2018-03-10 09:00:00'::TIMESTAMP_LTZ), dateadd(day, 1, '2018-11-03 09:00:00'::TIMESTAMP_LTZ);

+-------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| DATEADD(DAY, 1, '2018-03-10 09:00:00'::TIMESTAMP_LTZ) | DATEADD(DAY, 1, '2018-11-03 09:00:00'::TIMESTAMP_LTZ) |
|-------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------|
| 2018-03-11 10:00:00.000 -0700                         | 2018-11-04 08:00:00.000 -0800                         |
+-------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+

alter session set TIMESTAMP_DAY_IS_ALWAYS_24H = false;

select dateadd(day, 1, '2018-03-10 09:00:00'::TIMESTAMP_LTZ), dateadd(day, 1, '2018-11-03 09:00:00'::TIMESTAMP_LTZ);

+-------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| DATEADD(DAY, 1, '2018-03-10 09:00:00'::TIMESTAMP_LTZ) | DATEADD(DAY, 1, '2018-11-03 09:00:00'::TIMESTAMP_LTZ) |
|-------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------|
| 2018-03-11 09:00:00.000 -0700                         | 2018-11-04 09:00:00.000 -0800                         |
+-------------------------------------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+

TIMESTAMP_INPUT_FORMAT¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

String

Description

Specifies the input format for the TIMESTAMP data type alias. For more information, see Date and Time Input / Output.

Values

Any valid, supported timestamp format or AUTO

(AUTO specifies that Snowflake attempts to automatically detect the format of timestamps stored in the system during the session)

Default

AUTO

TIMESTAMP_LTZ_OUTPUT_FORMAT¶

Type: Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session
Data Type: String
Description: Specifies the display format for the TIMESTAMP_LTZ data type. If no format is specified, defaults to TIMESTAMP_OUTPUT_FORMAT. For more information, see Date and Time Input / Output.
Values: Any valid, supported timestamp format
Default: None

TIMESTAMP_NTZ_OUTPUT_FORMAT¶

Type: Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session
Data Type: String
Description: Specifies the display format for the TIMESTAMP_NTZ data type.
Values: Any valid, supported timestamp format
Default: YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS.FF3

TIMESTAMP_OUTPUT_FORMAT¶

Type: Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session
Data Type: String
Description: Specifies the display format for the TIMESTAMP data type alias. For more information, see Date and Time Input / Output.
Values: Any valid, supported timestamp format
Default: YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS.FF3 TZHTZM

TIMESTAMP_TYPE_MAPPING¶

Type: Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session
Data Type: String
Description: Specifies the TIMESTAMP_* variation that the TIMESTAMP data type alias maps to.
Values: TIMESTAMP_LTZ , TIMESTAMP_NTZ , or TIMESTAMP_TZ
Default: TIMESTAMP_NTZ

TIMESTAMP_TZ_OUTPUT_FORMAT¶

Type: Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session
Data Type: String
Description: Specifies the display format for the TIMESTAMP_TZ data type. If no format is specified, defaults to TIMESTAMP_OUTPUT_FORMAT. For more information, see Date and Time Input / Output.
Values: Any valid, supported timestamp format
Default: None

TIMEZONE¶

Type: Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session
Data Type: String (Constant)
Description: Specifies the time zone for the session.
Values: You can specify a time zone name or a link name from release 2021a of the IANA Time Zone Database (e.g. America/Los_Angeles, Europe/London, UTC, Etc/GMT, etc.).
Default: America/Los_Angeles

Note

Time zone names are case-sensitive and must be enclosed in single quotes (e.g. 'UTC').
Snowflake does not support the majority of timezone abbreviations (e.g. PDT, EST, etc.) because a given abbreviation might refer to one of several different time zones. For example, CST might refer to Central Standard Time in North America (UTC-6), Cuba Standard Time (UTC-5), and China Standard Time (UTC+8).

TIME_INPUT_FORMAT¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

String

Description

Specifies the input format for the TIME data type. For more information, see Date and Time Input / Output.

Values

Any valid, supported time format or AUTO

(AUTO specifies that Snowflake attempts to automatically detect the format of times stored in the system during the session)

Default

AUTO

TIME_OUTPUT_FORMAT¶

Type: Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session
Data Type: String
Description: Specifies the display format for the TIME data type. For more information, see Date and Time Input / Output.
Values: Any valid, supported time format
Default: HH24:MI:SS

TRANSACTION_ABORT_ON_ERROR¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

BOOLEAN

Description

Specifies the action to perform when a statement issued within a non-autocommit transaction returns with an error.

Values

TRUE: The non-autocommit transaction is aborted. All statements issued inside that transaction will fail until a commit or rollback statement is executed to close that transaction.

FALSE: The non-autocommit transaction is not aborted.

Default

FALSE

TRANSACTION_DEFAULT_ISOLATION_LEVEL¶

Type: Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session
Data Type: String
Description: Specifies the isolation level for transactions in the user session.
Values: READ COMMITTED (only currently-supported value)
Default: READ COMMITTED

TWO_DIGIT_CENTURY_START¶

Type: Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session
Data Type: Number
Description: Specifies the “century start” year for 2-digit years (i.e. the earliest year such dates can represent). This parameter prevents ambiguous dates when importing or converting data with the YY date format component (i.e. years represented as 2 digits).
Values: 1900 to 2100 (any value outside of this range returns an error)
Default: 1970

For example:

Year		Param set to `1900`	Param set to `1970` (default)	Param set to `1980`	Param set to `1990`	Param set to `2000`
`00`	becomes:	`1900`	`2000`	`2000`	`2000`	`2000`
`79`	becomes:	`1979`	`1979`	`2079`	`2079`	`2079`
`89`	becomes:	`1989`	`1989`	`1989`	`2089`	`2089`
`99`	becomes:	`1999`	`1999`	`1999`	`1999`	`2099`

UNSUPPORTED_DDL_ACTION¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

String (Constant)

Description

Specifies whether an unsupported (i.e. non-default) value specified for a constraint property returns an error.

Values

IGNORE: Snowflake does not return an error for unsupported values.

FAIL: Snowflake returns an error for unsupported values.

Default

IGNORE

Important

This parameter does not determine whether the constraint is created. Snowflake does not create constraints using unsupported values, regardless of how this parameter is set.

For more information, see Constraint Properties.

USE_CACHED_RESULT¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

Boolean

Description

Specifies whether to reuse cached query results, if available, when a matching query is submitted.

Values

TRUE: When a query is submitted, Snowflake checks for matching query results for previously-executed queries and, if a matching result exists, uses the result instead of executing the query. This can help reduce query time because Snowflake retrieves the result directly from the cache.

FALSE: Snowflake executes each query when submitted, regardless of whether a matching query result exists.

Default

TRUE

USER_TASK_MANAGED_INITIAL_WAREHOUSE_SIZE¶

Type

Object (for databases, schemas, and tasks) — Can be set for Account » Database » Schema » Task

Data Type

String

Description

Specifies the size of the compute resources to provision for the first run of the task, before a task history is available for Snowflake to determine an ideal size. Once a task has successfully completed a few runs, Snowflake ignores this parameter setting. If the task history is unavailable for a given task, the compute resources revert to this initial size.

Note

This parameter applies only to serverless tasks.

The size is equivalent to the compute resources available when creating a warehouse. If the parameter is omitted, the first runs of the task are executed using a medium-sized (MEDIUM) warehouse.

You can change the initial size for individual tasks (using ALTER TASK) after the task is created but before it has run successfully once. Changing the parameter after the first run of this task starts has no effect on the compute resources for current or future task runs.

Note that suspending and resuming a task does not remove the task history used to size the compute resources. The task history is only removed if the task is recreated (using the CREATE OR REPLACE TASK syntax).

Values

Any traditional warehouse size: SMALL, MEDIUM, LARGE, etc., with a maximum size of XXLARGE.

Default

MEDIUM

USER_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS¶

Type

Object (for databases, schemas, and tasks) — Can be set for Account » Database » Schema » Task

Data Type

Number

Description

Specifies the time limit on a single run of the task before it times out (in milliseconds).

Note

Before you increase the time limit for tasks significantly, consider whether the SQL statements in the task definitions could be optimized (either by rewriting the statements or using stored procedures) or whether the warehouse size for tasks with user-managed compute resources should be increased.
In some situations, the STATEMENT_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS parameter has a higher precedence than USER_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS. For details, see STATEMENT_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS.

Values

0 - 86400000 (1 day).

Default

3600000 (1 hour)

WEEK_OF_YEAR_POLICY¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

Number

Description

Specifies how the weeks in a given year are computed.

Values

0: The semantics used are equivalent to the ISO semantics, in which a week belongs to a given year if at least 4 days of that week are in that year.

1: January 1 is included in the first week of the year and December 31 is included in the last week of the year.

Default

0 (i.e. ISO-like behavior)

Tip

1 is the most common value, based on feedback we’ve received. For more information, including examples, see Calendar Weeks and Weekdays.

WEEK_START¶

Type

Session — Can be set for Account » User » Session

Data Type

Number

Description

Specifies the first day of the week (used by week-related date functions).

Values

0: Legacy Snowflake behavior is used (i.e. ISO-like semantics).

1 (Monday) to 7 (Sunday): All the week-related functions use weeks that start on the specified day of the week.

Default

0 (i.e. legacy Snowflake behavior)

Tip

1 is the most common value, based on feedback we’ve received. For more information, including examples, see Calendar Weeks and Weekdays.

Parameters¶

Parameter Hierarchy and Types¶

Account Parameters¶

Session Parameters¶

Object Parameters¶

Viewing the Parameters and Their Values¶

Viewing Session and Object Parameters¶

Viewing All Parameters¶

Limiting the List of Parameters by Name¶

ABORT_DETACHED_QUERY¶

ALLOW_CLIENT_MFA_CACHING¶

ALLOW_ID_TOKEN¶

AUTOCOMMIT¶

AUTOCOMMIT_API_SUPPORTED (View-only)¶

BINARY_INPUT_FORMAT¶

BINARY_OUTPUT_FORMAT¶

CLIENT_ENABLE_LOG_INFO_STATEMENT_PARAMETERS¶

CLIENT_ENCRYPTION_KEY_SIZE¶

CLIENT_MEMORY_LIMIT¶

CLIENT_METADATA_REQUEST_USE_CONNECTION_CTX¶

CLIENT_METADATA_USE_SESSION_DATABASE¶

CLIENT_PREFETCH_THREADS¶

CLIENT_RESULT_CHUNK_SIZE¶

CLIENT_RESULT_COLUMN_CASE_INSENSITIVE¶

CLIENT_SESSION_KEEP_ALIVE¶

CLIENT_SESSION_KEEP_ALIVE_HEARTBEAT_FREQUENCY¶

CLIENT_TIMESTAMP_TYPE_MAPPING¶

DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS¶

DATE_INPUT_FORMAT¶

DATE_OUTPUT_FORMAT¶

DEFAULT_DDL_COLLATION¶

ENABLE_INTERNAL_STAGES_PRIVATELINK¶

ENABLE_UNLOAD_PHYSICAL_TYPE_OPTIMIZATION¶

ENFORCE_SESSION_POLICY¶

ERROR_ON_NONDETERMINISTIC_MERGE¶

ERROR_ON_NONDETERMINISTIC_UPDATE¶

EXTERNAL_OAUTH_ADD_PRIVILEGED_ROLES_TO_BLOCKED_LIST¶

GEOGRAPHY_OUTPUT_FORMAT¶

GEOMETRY_OUTPUT_FORMAT¶

INITIAL_REPLICATION_SIZE_LIMIT_IN_TB¶

JDBC_TREAT_DECIMAL_AS_INT¶

JDBC_TREAT_TIMESTAMP_NTZ_AS_UTC¶

JDBC_USE_SESSION_TIMEZONE¶

JSON_INDENT¶

JS_TREAT_INTEGER_AS_BIGINT¶

LOCK_TIMEOUT¶

MAX_CONCURRENCY_LEVEL¶

MAX_DATA_EXTENSION_TIME_IN_DAYS¶

MULTI_STATEMENT_COUNT¶

MIN_DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS¶

NETWORK_POLICY¶

SHARE_RESTRICTIONS¶

PERIODIC_DATA_REKEYING¶

PIPE_EXECUTION_PAUSED¶

PREVENT_UNLOAD_TO_INLINE_URL¶

PREVENT_UNLOAD_TO_INTERNAL_STAGES¶

QUERY_TAG¶

QUOTED_IDENTIFIERS_IGNORE_CASE¶

REQUIRE_STORAGE_INTEGRATION_FOR_STAGE_CREATION¶

REQUIRE_STORAGE_INTEGRATION_FOR_STAGE_OPERATION¶

ROWS_PER_RESULTSET¶

SAML_IDENTITY_PROVIDER¶

SIMULATED_DATA_SHARING_CONSUMER¶

SSO_LOGIN_PAGE¶

STATEMENT_QUEUED_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS¶

STATEMENT_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS¶

STRICT_JSON_OUTPUT¶

SUSPEND_TASK_AFTER_NUM_FAILURES¶

TIMESTAMP_DAY_IS_ALWAYS_24H¶

TIMESTAMP_INPUT_FORMAT¶

TIMESTAMP_LTZ_OUTPUT_FORMAT¶

TIMESTAMP_NTZ_OUTPUT_FORMAT¶

TIMESTAMP_OUTPUT_FORMAT¶

TIMESTAMP_TYPE_MAPPING¶

TIMESTAMP_TZ_OUTPUT_FORMAT¶

TIMEZONE¶

TIME_INPUT_FORMAT¶

TIME_OUTPUT_FORMAT¶

TRANSACTION_ABORT_ON_ERROR¶

TRANSACTION_DEFAULT_ISOLATION_LEVEL¶