Categories:: Data Loading / Unloading DDL

CREATE STAGE¶

Creates a new named internal or external stage to use for loading data from files into Snowflake tables and unloading data from tables into files:

Internal stage

Stores data files internally within Snowflake. Internal stages can be either permanent or temporary. For more details, see Choosing a Stage for Local Files.

External stage

References data files stored in a location outside of Snowflake. Currently, the following cloud storage services are supported:

Amazon S3 buckets
Google Cloud Storage buckets
Microsoft Azure containers

The storage location can be either private/protected or public.

An internal or external stage can include a directory table. Directory tables store a catalog of staged files in cloud storage.

See also:

ALTER STAGE , SHOW STAGES

PUT , COPY INTO <table>

COPY INTO <location> , GET

In this Topic:

Syntax
Required Parameters
Optional Parameters
Internal Stage Parameters (internalStageParams)
External Stage Parameters (externalStageParams)
Directory Table Parameters (directoryTableParams)
Format Type Options (formatTypeOptions)
Copy Options (copyOptions)
Usage Notes
Examples
- Internal Stages
- External Stages

Syntax¶

-- Internal stage
CREATE [ OR REPLACE ] [ TEMPORARY ] STAGE [ IF NOT EXISTS ] <internal_stage_name>
    internalStageParams
    directoryTableParams
  [ FILE_FORMAT = ( { FORMAT_NAME = '<file_format_name>' | TYPE = { CSV | JSON | AVRO | ORC | PARQUET | XML } [ formatTypeOptions ] ) } ]
  [ COPY_OPTIONS = ( copyOptions ) ]
  [ [ WITH ] TAG ( <tag_key> = 'tag_value' [ , <tag_key> = 'tag_value' , ... ] ) ]
  [ COMMENT = '<string_literal>' ]

-- External stage
CREATE [ OR REPLACE ] [ TEMPORARY ] STAGE [ IF NOT EXISTS ] <external_stage_name>
    externalStageParams
    directoryTableParams
  [ FILE_FORMAT = ( { FORMAT_NAME = '<file_format_name>' | TYPE = { CSV | JSON | AVRO | ORC | PARQUET | XML } [ formatTypeOptions ] ) } ]
  [ COPY_OPTIONS = ( copyOptions ) ]
  [ [ WITH ] TAG ( <tag_key> = 'tag_value' [ , <tag_key> = 'tag_value' , ... ] ) ]
  [ COMMENT = '<string_literal>' ]

Where:

internalStageParams ::=
  [ ENCRYPTION = (TYPE = 'SNOWFLAKE_FULL' | TYPE = 'SNOWFLAKE_SSE') ]

externalStageParams (for Amazon S3) ::=
  URL = 's3://<bucket>[/<path>/]'

  [ { STORAGE_INTEGRATION = <integration_name> } | { CREDENTIALS = ( {  { AWS_KEY_ID = '<string>' AWS_SECRET_KEY = '<string>' [ AWS_TOKEN = '<string>' ] } | AWS_ROLE = '<string>'  } ) ) } ]
  [ ENCRYPTION = ( [ TYPE = 'AWS_CSE' ] [ MASTER_KEY = '<string>' ] |
                   [ TYPE = 'AWS_SSE_S3' ] |
                   [ TYPE = 'AWS_SSE_KMS' [ KMS_KEY_ID = '<string>' ] |
                   [ TYPE = NONE ] ) ]

externalStageParams (for Google Cloud Storage) ::=
  URL = 'gcs://<bucket>[/<path>/]'
  [ STORAGE_INTEGRATION = <integration_name> ]
  [ ENCRYPTION = ( [ TYPE = 'GCS_SSE_KMS' ] [ KMS_KEY_ID = '<string>' ] | [ TYPE = NONE ] ) ]

externalStageParams (for Microsoft Azure) ::=
  URL = 'azure://<account>.blob.core.windows.net/<container>[/<path>/]'
  [ { STORAGE_INTEGRATION = <integration_name> } | { CREDENTIALS = ( [ AZURE_SAS_TOKEN = <string> ] ) } ]
  [ ENCRYPTION = ( [TYPE = { 'AZURE_CSE' | NONE } ] [ MASTER_KEY = '<string>' ] ) ]

directoryTableParams (for internal stages) ::=
  [ DIRECTORY = ( { ENABLE = TRUE | FALSE } ) ]

directoryTableParams (for Amazon S3) ::=
  [ DIRECTORY = ( ENABLE = { TRUE | FALSE }
                  [ AUTO_REFRESH = { TRUE | FALSE } ] ) ]

directoryTableParams (for Google Cloud Storage) ::=
  [ DIRECTORY = ( ENABLE = { TRUE | FALSE }
                  [ AUTO_REFRESH = { TRUE | FALSE } ]
                  [ NOTIFICATION_INTEGRATION = '<notification_integration_name>' ] ) ]

directoryTableParams (for Microsoft Azure) ::=
  [ DIRECTORY = ( ENABLE = { TRUE | FALSE }
                  [ AUTO_REFRESH = { TRUE | FALSE } ]
                  [ NOTIFICATION_INTEGRATION = '<notification_integration_name>' ] ) ]

formatTypeOptions ::=
-- If TYPE = CSV
     COMPRESSION = AUTO | GZIP | BZ2 | BROTLI | ZSTD | DEFLATE | RAW_DEFLATE | NONE
     RECORD_DELIMITER = '<character>' | NONE
     FIELD_DELIMITER = '<character>' | NONE
     FILE_EXTENSION = '<string>'
     SKIP_HEADER = <integer>
     SKIP_BLANK_LINES = TRUE | FALSE
     DATE_FORMAT = '<string>' | AUTO
     TIME_FORMAT = '<string>' | AUTO
     TIMESTAMP_FORMAT = '<string>' | AUTO
     BINARY_FORMAT = HEX | BASE64 | UTF8
     ESCAPE = '<character>' | NONE
     ESCAPE_UNENCLOSED_FIELD = '<character>' | NONE
     TRIM_SPACE = TRUE | FALSE
     FIELD_OPTIONALLY_ENCLOSED_BY = '<character>' | NONE
     NULL_IF = ( '<string>' [ , '<string>' ... ] )
     ERROR_ON_COLUMN_COUNT_MISMATCH = TRUE | FALSE
     REPLACE_INVALID_CHARACTERS = TRUE | FALSE
     VALIDATE_UTF8 = TRUE | FALSE
     EMPTY_FIELD_AS_NULL = TRUE | FALSE
     SKIP_BYTE_ORDER_MARK = TRUE | FALSE
     ENCODING = '<string>' | UTF8
-- If TYPE = JSON
     COMPRESSION = AUTO | GZIP | BZ2 | BROTLI | ZSTD | DEFLATE | RAW_DEFLATE | NONE
     DATE_FORMAT = '<string>' | AUTO
     TIME_FORMAT = '<string>' | AUTO
     TIMESTAMP_FORMAT = '<string>' | AUTO
     BINARY_FORMAT = HEX | BASE64 | UTF8
     TRIM_SPACE = TRUE | FALSE
     NULL_IF = ( '<string>' [ , '<string>' ... ] )
     FILE_EXTENSION = '<string>'
     ENABLE_OCTAL = TRUE | FALSE
     ALLOW_DUPLICATE = TRUE | FALSE
     STRIP_OUTER_ARRAY = TRUE | FALSE
     STRIP_NULL_VALUES = TRUE | FALSE
     REPLACE_INVALID_CHARACTERS = TRUE | FALSE
     IGNORE_UTF8_ERRORS = TRUE | FALSE
     SKIP_BYTE_ORDER_MARK = TRUE | FALSE
-- If TYPE = AVRO
     COMPRESSION = AUTO | GZIP | BZ2 | BROTLI | ZSTD | DEFLATE | RAW_DEFLATE | NONE
     TRIM_SPACE = TRUE | FALSE
     NULL_IF = ( '<string>' [ , '<string>' ... ] )
-- If TYPE = ORC
     TRIM_SPACE = TRUE | FALSE
     NULL_IF = ( '<string>' [ , '<string>' ... ] )
-- If TYPE = PARQUET
     COMPRESSION = AUTO | LZO | SNAPPY | NONE
     SNAPPY_COMPRESSION = TRUE | FALSE
     BINARY_AS_TEXT = TRUE | FALSE
     TRIM_SPACE = TRUE | FALSE
     NULL_IF = ( '<string>' [ , '<string>' ... ] )
-- If TYPE = XML
     COMPRESSION = AUTO | GZIP | BZ2 | BROTLI | ZSTD | DEFLATE | RAW_DEFLATE | NONE
     IGNORE_UTF8_ERRORS = TRUE | FALSE
     PRESERVE_SPACE = TRUE | FALSE
     STRIP_OUTER_ELEMENT = TRUE | FALSE
     DISABLE_SNOWFLAKE_DATA = TRUE | FALSE
     DISABLE_AUTO_CONVERT = TRUE | FALSE
     SKIP_BYTE_ORDER_MARK = TRUE | FALSE

copyOptions ::=
     ON_ERROR = { CONTINUE | SKIP_FILE | SKIP_FILE_<num> | SKIP_FILE_<num>% | ABORT_STATEMENT }
     SIZE_LIMIT = <num>
     PURGE = TRUE | FALSE
     RETURN_FAILED_ONLY = TRUE | FALSE
     MATCH_BY_COLUMN_NAME = CASE_SENSITIVE | CASE_INSENSITIVE | NONE
     ENFORCE_LENGTH = TRUE | FALSE
     TRUNCATECOLUMNS = TRUE | FALSE
     FORCE = TRUE | FALSE

Required Parameters¶

internal_stage_name or . external_stage_name

Specifies the identifier for the stage; must be unique for the schema in which the stage is created.

In addition, the identifier must start with an alphabetic character and cannot contain spaces or special characters unless the entire identifier string is enclosed in double quotes (e.g. "My object"). Identifiers enclosed in double quotes are also case-sensitive.

For more details, see Identifier Requirements.

Note

When creating an external stage, a URL is also required. For more details, see External Stage Parameters (in this topic).

If a URL is not specified, Snowflake creates an internal stage by default.

Optional Parameters¶

TEMPORARY

Specifies that the stage created is temporary and will be dropped at the end of the session in which it was created. Note:

When a temporary external stage is dropped, only the stage itself is dropped; the data files are not removed.

When a temporary internal stage is dropped, all of the files in the stage are purged from Snowflake, regardless of their load status. This prevents files in temporary internal stages from using data storage and, consequently, accruing storage charges. However, this also means that the staged files cannot be recovered through Snowflake once the stage is dropped.

Tip

If you plan to create and use temporary internal stages, you should maintain copies of your data files outside of Snowflake.

Specifies the file format for the stage, which can be either:

FORMAT_NAME = 'file_format_name'
Specifies an existing named file format to use for the stage. The named file format determines the format type (CSV, JSON, etc.), as well as any other format options, for the data files loaded using this stage. For more details, see CREATE FILE FORMAT.

TYPE = CSV | JSON | AVRO | ORC | PARQUET | XML [ ... ]
Specifies the type of files for the stage:

Loading data from a stage (using COPY INTO <table>) accommodates all of the supported format types.

Unloading data into a stage (using COPY INTO <location>) accommodates CSV, JSON, or PARQUET.

If a file format type is specified, additional format-specific options can be specified. For more details, see Format Type Options (formatTypeOptions) (in this topic).

Default: TYPE = CSV

Note

FORMAT_NAME and TYPE are mutually exclusive; you can only specify one or the other for a stage.

COPY_OPTIONS = ( ... )

Specifies one (or more) copy options for the stage. For more details, see Copy Options (copyOptions) (in this topic).

TAG ( tag_key = 'tag_value' [ , tag_key = 'tag_value' , ... ] ) ]

Specifies the tag name (i.e. the key) and the tag value.

The tag value is always a string and the maximum number of characters for the tag value is 256. The maximum number of tags that can be set on an object is 20.

COMMENT = 'string_literal'

Specifies a comment for the stage.

Default: No value

Internal Stage Parameters (`internalStageParams`)¶

[ ENCRYPTION = (TYPE = 'SNOWFLAKE_FULL' | TYPE = 'SNOWFLAKE_SSE')

Specifies the type of encryption supported for all files stored in the stage.

TYPE = ...

Specifies the encryption type used. Possible values are:

SNOWFLAKE_FULL: Client-side encryption. The files are encrypted by a client when it uploads them to the internal stage using PUT.
SNOWFLAKE_SSE: Server-side encryption. The files are encrypted when they arrive in the stage. Specify server-side encryption for unstructured data files.

Note

Support for this unstructured data files is provided as a preview feature.

Default: SNOWFLAKE_FULL

External Stage Parameters (`externalStageParams`)¶

URL = 'cloud_specific_url'

If this parameter is omitted, Snowflake creates an internal stage

Important

Enclose the URL in single quotes ('') in order for Snowflake to identify the string. If the quotes are omitted, any credentials you supply may be displayed in plain text in the history. We strongly recommend verifying the syntax of the CREATE STAGE statement before you execute it.

The Create Stage wizard in the Snowflake web interface automatically encloses field values in quotation characters, as needed. Using the web interface to create stages is a good option for less-experienced users.
Append a forward slash (/) to the URL to filter to the specified folder path. If the forward slash is omitted, all files and folders starting with the prefix for the specified path are included.

Note that the forward slash is required to access and retrieve unstructured data files in the stage.

Amazon S3

URL = 's3://bucket[/path/]'
Specifies the URL for the external location (existing S3 bucket) used to store data files for loading/unloading, where:

bucket is the name of the S3 bucket.

Note that S3 buckets in non-public AWS regions, such as government regions, are not supported.

path is an optional case-sensitive path for files in the cloud storage location (i.e. files have names that begin with a common string) that limits the set of files. Paths are alternatively called prefixes or folders by different cloud storage services.

Google Cloud Storage

URL = 'gcs://bucket[/path/]'
Specifies the URL for the external location (existing GCS bucket) used to store data files for loading/unloading, where:

bucket is the name of the GCS bucket.

path is an optional case-sensitive path for files in the cloud storage location (i.e. files have names that begin with a common string) that limits the set of files. Paths are alternatively called prefixes or folders by different cloud storage services.

Microsoft Azure

URL = 'azure://account.blob.core.windows.net/container[/path/]'
Specifies the URL for the external location (existing Azure container) used to store data files for loading, where:

account is the name of the Azure account (e.g. myaccount). Use the blob.core.windows.net endpoint for all supported types of Azure blob storage accounts, including Data Lake Storage Gen2.

container is the name of the Azure container (e.g. mycontainer).

path is an optional case-sensitive path for files in the cloud storage location (i.e. files have names that begin with a common string) that limits the set of files. Paths are alternatively called prefixes or folders by different cloud storage services.

Default: No value (an internal stage is created)

STORAGE_INTEGRATION = integration_name or . CREDENTIALS = ( cloud_specific_credentials )

Required only if the storage location is private/protected; not required for public buckets/containers

Amazon S3

STORAGE_INTEGRATION = integration_name
Specifies the name of the storage integration used to delegate authentication responsibility for external cloud storage to a Snowflake identity and access management (IAM) entity. For more details, see CREATE STORAGE INTEGRATION.

Note

We highly recommend the use of storage integrations. This option avoids the need to supply cloud storage credentials using the CREDENTIALS parameter when creating stages or loading data.

CREDENTIALS = ( AWS_KEY_ID = 'string' AWS_SECRET_KEY = 'string' [ AWS_TOKEN = 'string' ] ) or . CREDENTIALS = ( AWS_ROLE = 'string' )
Specifies the security credentials for connecting to AWS and accessing the private/protected S3 bucket where the files to load/unload are staged. For more information, see Configuring Secure Access to Amazon S3.

The credentials you specify depend on whether you associated the Snowflake access permissions for the bucket with an AWS IAM (Identity & Access Management) user or role:

IAM user: IAM credentials are required. Temporary (aka “scoped”) credentials are generated by AWS Security Token Service (STS) and consist of three components:

AWS_KEY_ID

AWS_SECRET_KEY

AWS_TOKEN

All three are required to access a private/protected bucket. After a designated period of time, temporary credentials expire and can no longer be used. You must then generate a new set of valid temporary credentials.

Important

The COPY command also allows permanent (aka “long-term”) credentials to be used; however, for security reasons, Snowflake does not recommend using them. If you must use permanent credentials, Snowflake recommends periodically generating new permanent credentials for external stages.

IAM role: Omit the security credentials and access keys and, instead, identify the role using AWS_ROLE and specify the AWS role ARN (Amazon Resource Name).

Google Cloud Storage

STORAGE_INTEGRATION = integration_name
Specifies the name of the storage integration used to delegate authentication responsibility for external cloud storage to a Snowflake identity and access management (IAM) entity. For more details, see CREATE STORAGE INTEGRATION.

Microsoft Azure

STORAGE_INTEGRATION = integration_name
Specifies the name of the storage integration used to delegate authentication responsibility for external cloud storage to a Snowflake identity and access management (IAM) entity. For more details, see CREATE STORAGE INTEGRATION.

Note

We highly recommend the use of storage integrations. This option avoids the need to supply cloud storage credentials using the CREDENTIALS parameter when creating stages or loading data.

CREDENTIALS = ( AZURE_SAS_TOKEN = 'string' )
Specifies the SAS (shared access signature) token for connecting to Azure and accessing the private/protected container where the files containing loaded data are staged. Credentials are generated by Azure.

Default: No value (no credentials are provided for the external stage)

ENCRYPTION = ( cloud_specific_encryption )

Required only for loading from/unloading into encrypted files; not required if storage location and files are unencrypted

Data loading: Modifies the encryption settings used to decrypt encrypted files in the storage location and extract data.
Data unloading: Modifies the encryption settings used to encrypt files unloaded to the storage location.

Amazon S3

ENCRYPTION = ( [ TYPE = 'AWS_CSE' ] [ MASTER_KEY = '<string>' ] | [ TYPE = 'AWS_SSE_S3' ] | [ TYPE = 'AWS_SSE_KMS' [ KMS_KEY_ID = '<string>' ] | [ TYPE = NONE ] )

TYPE = ...
Specifies the encryption type used. Possible values are:

AWS_CSE: Client-side encryption (requires a MASTER_KEY value). Currently, the client-side master key you provide can only be a symmetric key. Note that, when a MASTER_KEY value is provided, Snowflake assumes TYPE = AWS_CSE (i.e. when a MASTER_KEY value is provided, TYPE is not required).

AWS_SSE_S3: Server-side encryption that requires no additional encryption settings.

AWS_SSE_KMS: Server-side encryption that accepts an optional KMS_KEY_ID value.

For more information about the encryption types, see the AWS documentation for client-side encryption or server-side encryption.

MASTER_KEY = 'string' (applies to AWS_CSE encryption only)
Specifies the client-side master key used to encrypt the files in the bucket. The master key must be a 128-bit or 256-bit key in Base64-encoded form.

KMS_KEY_ID = 'string' (applies to AWS_SSE_KMS encryption only)
Optionally specifies the ID for the AWS KMS-managed key used to encrypt files unloaded into the bucket. If no value is provided, your default KMS key ID is used to encrypt files on unload.

Note that this value is ignored for data loading.

Google Cloud Storage

ENCRYPTION = ( [ TYPE = 'GCS_SSE_KMS' ] [ KMS_KEY_ID = '<string>' ] | [ TYPE = NONE ] )

TYPE = ...
Specifies the encryption type used. Possible values are:

GCS_SSE_KMS: Server-side encryption that accepts an optional KMS_KEY_ID value.

For more information, see the Google Cloud Platform documentation:

https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/encryption/customer-managed-keys

https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/encryption/using-customer-managed-keys

KMS_KEY_ID = 'string' (applies to GCS_SSE_KMS encryption only)
Optionally specifies the ID for the Cloud KMS-managed key that is used to encrypt files unloaded into the bucket. If no value is provided, your default KMS key ID set on the bucket is used to encrypt files on unload.

Note that this value is ignored for data loading. The load operation should succeed if the service account has sufficient permissions to decrypt data in the bucket.

Microsoft Azure

ENCRYPTION = ( [ TYPE = 'AZURE_CSE' | NONE ] [ MASTER_KEY = 'string' ] )

TYPE = ...
Specifies the encryption type used. Possible values are:

AZURE_CSE: Client-side encryption (requires a MASTER_KEY value). For information, see the Client-side encryption information in the Microsoft Azure documentation.

NONE: No encryption.

MASTER_KEY = 'string' (applies to AZURE_CSE encryption only)
Specifies the client-side master key used to encrypt or decrypt files. The master key must be a 128-bit or 256-bit key in Base64-encoded form.

Directory Table Parameters (`directoryTableParams`)¶

ENABLE = TRUE | FALSE

Specifies whether to add a directory table to the stage. When the value is TRUE, a directory table is created with the stage.

Default: FALSE

Amazon S3

AUTO_REFRESH = TRUE | FALSE
Specifies whether Snowflake should enable triggering automatic refreshes of the directory table metadata when new or updated data files are available in the named external stage specified in the [ WITH ] LOCATION = setting.

TRUE
Snowflake enables triggering automatic refreshes of the directory table metadata.

FALSE
Snowflake does not enable triggering automatic refreshes of the directory table metadata. You must manually refresh the directory table metadata periodically using ALTER STAGE … REFRESH to synchronize the metadata with the current list of files in the stage path.

Default: FALSE

Google Cloud Storage

AUTO_REFRESH = TRUE | FALSE
Specifies whether Snowflake should enable triggering automatic refreshes of the directory table metadata when new or updated data files are available in the named external stage specified in the [ WITH ] LOCATION = setting.

TRUE
Snowflake enables triggering automatic refreshes of the directory table metadata.

FALSE
Snowflake does not enable triggering automatic refreshes of the directory table metadata. You must manually refresh the directory table metadata periodically using ALTER STAGE … REFRESH to synchronize the metadata with the current list of files in the stage path.

NOTIFICATION_INTEGRATION = '<notification_integration_name>'
Specifies the name of the notification integration used to automatically refresh the directory table metadata using GCS Pub/Sub notifications. A notification integration is a Snowflake object that provides an interface between Snowflake and third-party cloud message queuing services.

Microsoft Azure

AUTO_REFRESH = TRUE | FALSE
Specifies whether Snowflake should enable triggering automatic refreshes of the directory table metadata when new or updated data files are available in the named external stage specified in the [ WITH ] LOCATION = setting.

TRUE
Snowflake enables triggering automatic refreshes of the directory table metadata.

FALSE
Snowflake does not enable triggering automatic refreshes of the directory table metadata. You must manually refresh the directory table metadata periodically using ALTER STAGE … REFRESH to synchronize the metadata with the current list of files in the stage path.

Default: FALSE

NOTIFICATION_INTEGRATION = '<notification_integration_name>'
Specifies the name of the notification integration used to automatically refresh the directory table metadata using Azure Event Grid notifications. A notification integration is a Snowflake object that provides an interface between Snowflake and third-party cloud message queuing services.

Format Type Options (`formatTypeOptions`)¶

Depending on the file format type specified (FILE_FORMAT = ( TYPE = ... )), you can include one or more of the following format-specific options (separated by blank spaces, commas, or new lines):

TYPE = CSV¶

Use

Data loading and unloading

Definition

When loading data, specifies the current compression algorithm for the data file. Snowflake uses this option to detect how an already-compressed data file was compressed so that the compressed data in the file can be extracted for loading.
When unloading data, compresses the data file using the specified compression algorithm.

Values

Supported Values	Notes
`AUTO`	When loading data, compression algorithm detected automatically, except for Brotli-compressed files, which cannot currently be detected automatically. When unloading data, files are automatically compressed using the default, which is gzip.
`GZIP`
`BZ2`
`BROTLI`	Must be specified when loading/unloading Brotli-compressed files.
`ZSTD`	Zstandard v0.8 (and higher) is supported.
`DEFLATE`	Deflate-compressed files (with zlib header, RFC1950).
`RAW_DEFLATE`	Raw Deflate-compressed files (without header, RFC1951).
`NONE`	When loading data, indicates that the files have not been compressed. When unloading data, specifies that the unloaded files are not compressed.

Default

AUTO

RECORD_DELIMITER = 'character' | NONE

Use

Data loading and unloading

Definition

One or more singlebyte or multibyte characters that separate records in an input file (data loading) or unloaded file (data unloading). Accepts common escape sequences or the following singlebyte or multibyte characters:

Singlebyte characters

Octal values (prefixed by \\) or hex values (prefixed by 0x or \x). For example, for records delimited by the circumflex accent (^) character, specify the octal (\\5e) or hex (0x5e) value.

Multibyte characters

Hex values (prefixed by \x). For example, for records delimited by the cent (¢) character, specify the hex (\xC2\xA2) value.

The delimiter for RECORD_DELIMITER or FIELD_DELIMITER cannot be a substring of the delimiter for the other file format option (e.g. FIELD_DELIMITER = 'aa' RECORD_DELIMITER = 'aabb').

The specified delimiter must be a valid UTF-8 character and not a random sequence of bytes. Also note that the delimiter is limited to a maximum of 20 characters.

Also accepts a value of NONE.

Default

Data loading: New line character. Note that “new line” is logical such that \r\n will be understood as a new line for files on a Windows platform.
Data unloading: New line character (\n).

FIELD_DELIMITER = 'character' | NONE

Use

Data loading and unloading

Definition

One or more singlebyte or multibyte characters that separate fields in an input file (data loading) or unloaded file (data unloading). Accepts common escape sequences or the following singlebyte or multibyte characters:

Singlebyte characters

Octal values (prefixed by \\) or hex values (prefixed by 0x or \x). For example, for records delimited by the circumflex accent (^) character, specify the octal (\\5e) or hex (0x5e) value.

Multibyte characters

Hex values (prefixed by \x). For example, for records delimited by the cent (¢) character, specify the hex (\xC2\xA2) value.

The delimiter for RECORD_DELIMITER or FIELD_DELIMITER cannot be a substring of the delimiter for the other file format option (e.g. FIELD_DELIMITER = 'aa' RECORD_DELIMITER = 'aabb').

The specified delimiter must be a valid UTF-8 character and not a random sequence of bytes. Also note that the delimiter is limited to a maximum of 20 characters.

Also accepts a value of NONE.

Default

comma (,)

FILE_EXTENSION = 'string' | NONE

Use: Data unloading only
Definition: Specifies the extension for files unloaded to a stage. Accepts any extension. The user is responsible for specifying a file extension that can be read by any desired software or services.
Default: null, meaning the file extension is determined by the format type: .csv[compression], where compression is the extension added by the compression method, if COMPRESSION is set.

Note

If the SINGLE copy option is TRUE, then the COPY command unloads a file without a file extension by default. To specify a file extension, provide a file name and extension in the internal_location or external_location path (e.g. copy into @stage/data.csv).

SKIP_HEADER = integer

Use: Data loading only
Definition: Number of lines at the start of the file to skip.

Note that SKIP_HEADER does not use the RECORD_DELIMITER or FIELD_DELIMITER values to determine what a header line is; rather, it simply skips the specified number of CRLF (Carriage Return, Line Feed)-delimited lines in the file. RECORD_DELIMITER and FIELD_DELIMITER are then used to determine the rows of data to load.

Default: 0

SKIP_BLANK_LINES = TRUE | FALSE

Use: Data loading only
Definition: Boolean that specifies to skip any blank lines encountered in the data files; otherwise, blank lines produce an end-of-record error (default behavior).

Default: FALSE

DATE_FORMAT = 'string' | AUTO

Use: Data loading and unloading
Definition: Defines the format of date values in the data files (data loading) or table (data unloading). If a value is not specified or is AUTO, the value for the DATE_INPUT_FORMAT (data loading) or DATE_OUTPUT_FORMAT (data unloading) parameter is used.
Default: AUTO

TIME_FORMAT = 'string' | AUTO

Use: Data loading and unloading
Definition: Defines the format of time values in the data files (data loading) or table (data unloading). If a value is not specified or is AUTO, the value for the TIME_INPUT_FORMAT (data loading) or TIME_OUTPUT_FORMAT (data unloading) parameter is used.
Default: AUTO

TIMESTAMP_FORMAT = string' | AUTO

Use: Data loading and unloading
Definition: Defines the format of timestamp values in the data files (data loading) or table (data unloading). If a value is not specified or is AUTO, the value for the TIMESTAMP_INPUT_FORMAT (data loading) or TIMESTAMP_OUTPUT_FORMAT (data unloading) parameter is used.
Default: AUTO

BINARY_FORMAT = HEX | BASE64 | UTF8

Use: Data loading and unloading
Definition: Defines the encoding format for binary input or output. The option can be used when loading data into or unloading data from binary columns in a table.
Default: HEX

ESCAPE = 'character' | NONE

Use: Data loading and unloading
Definition: Single character string used as the escape character for enclosed or unenclosed field values. An escape character invokes an alternative interpretation on subsequent characters in a character sequence. You can use the ESCAPE character to interpret instances of the FIELD_OPTIONALLY_ENCLOSED_BY character in the data as literals.

Accepts common escape sequences, octal values, or hex values.

When loading data, specifies the escape character for enclosed fields. Specify the character used to enclose fields by setting FIELD_OPTIONALLY_ENCLOSED_BY.

When unloading data, if this option is set, it overrides the escape character set for ESCAPE_UNENCLOSED_FIELD.

Default: NONE

ESCAPE_UNENCLOSED_FIELD = 'character' | NONE

Use: Data loading and unloading
Definition: Single character string used as the escape character for unenclosed field values only. An escape character invokes an alternative interpretation on subsequent characters in a character sequence. You can use the ESCAPE character to interpret instances of the FIELD_DELIMITER or RECORD_DELIMITER characters in the data as literals. The escape character can also be used to escape instances of itself in the data.

Accepts common escape sequences, octal values, or hex values.

Note that when unloading data, if ESCAPE is set, the escape character set for that file format option overrides this option.

Default: backslash (\\)

TRIM_SPACE = TRUE | FALSE

Use

Data loading only

Definition

Boolean that specifies whether to remove white space from fields.

For example, if your external database software encloses fields in quotes, but inserts a leading space, Snowflake reads the leading space rather than the opening quotation character as the beginning of the field (i.e. the quotation marks are interpreted as part of the string of field data). Set this option to TRUE to remove undesirable spaces during the data load.

As another example, if leading or trailing spaces surround quotes that enclose strings, you can remove the surrounding spaces using this option and the quote character using the FIELD_OPTIONALLY_ENCLOSED_BY option. Note that any spaces within the quotes are preserved. For example, assuming FIELD_DELIMITER = '|' and FIELD_OPTIONALLY_ENCLOSED_BY = '"':

|"Hello world"|    /* loads as */  >Hello world<
|" Hello world "|  /* loads as */  > Hello world <
| "Hello world" |  /* loads as */  >Hello world<

(the brackets in this example are not loaded; they are used to demarcate the beginning and end of the loaded strings)

Default

FALSE

FIELD_OPTIONALLY_ENCLOSED_BY = 'character' | NONE

Use

Data loading and unloading

Definition

Character used to enclose strings. Value can be NONE, single quote character ('), or double quote character ("). To use the single quote character, use the octal or hex representation (0x27) or the double single-quoted escape ('').

When a field contains this character, escape it using the same character. For example, if the value is the double quote character and a field contains the string A "B" C, escape the double quotes as follows:

A ""B"" C

Default

NONE

NULL_IF = ( 'string1' [ , 'string2' , ... ] )

Use

Data loading and unloading

Definition

String used to convert to and from SQL NULL:

When loading data, Snowflake replaces these values in the data load source with SQL NULL. To specify more than one string, enclose the list of strings in parentheses and use commas to separate each value.

Note that Snowflake converts all instances of the value to NULL, regardless of the data type. For example, if 2 is specified as a value, all instances of 2 as either a string or number are converted.

For example:

NULL_IF = ('\\N', 'NULL', 'NUL', '')

Note that this option can include empty strings.
When unloading data, Snowflake converts SQL NULL values to the first value in the list.

Default

\\N (i.e. NULL, which assumes the ESCAPE_UNENCLOSED_FIELD value is \\)

ERROR_ON_COLUMN_COUNT_MISMATCH = TRUE | FALSE

Use

Data loading only

Definition

Boolean that specifies whether to generate a parsing error if the number of delimited columns (i.e. fields) in an input file does not match the number of columns in the corresponding table.

If set to FALSE, an error is not generated and the load continues. If the file is successfully loaded:

If the input file contains records with more fields than columns in the table, the matching fields are loaded in order of occurrence in the file and the remaining fields are not loaded.
If the input file contains records with fewer fields than columns in the table, the non-matching columns in the table are loaded with NULL values.

This option assumes all the records within the input file are the same length (i.e. a file containing records of varying length return an error regardless of the value specified for this parameter).

Default

TRUE

Note

When transforming data during loading (i.e. using a query as the source for the COPY command), this option is ignored. There is no requirement for your data files to have the same number and ordering of columns as your target table.

REPLACE_INVALID_CHARACTERS = TRUE | FALSE

Use: Data loading only
Definition: Boolean that specifies whether to replace invalid UTF-8 characters with the Unicode replacement character (�).

If set to TRUE, Snowflake replaces invalid UTF-8 characters with the Unicode replacement character.

If set to FALSE, the load operation produces an error when invalid UTF-8 character encoding is detected.

Default: FALSE

VALIDATE_UTF8 = TRUE | FALSE

Use

Data loading only

Definition

Boolean that specifies whether to validate UTF-8 character encoding in string column data.

If set to TRUE, Snowflake validates UTF-8 character encoding in string column data. When invalid UTF-8 character encoding is detected, the COPY command produces an error.

Default

TRUE

Important

This option is provided only to ensure backward compatibility with earlier versions of Snowflake. You should not disable this option unless instructed by Snowflake Support.

EMPTY_FIELD_AS_NULL = TRUE | FALSE

Use

Data loading and unloading

Definition

When loading data, specifies whether to insert SQL NULL for empty fields in an input file, which are represented by two successive delimiters (e.g. ,,).

If set to FALSE, Snowflake attempts to cast an empty field to the corresponding column type. An empty string is inserted into columns of type STRING. For other column types, the COPY command produces an error.
When unloading data, this option is used in combination with FIELD_OPTIONALLY_ENCLOSED_BY. When FIELD_OPTIONALLY_ENCLOSED_BY = NONE, setting EMPTY_FIELD_AS_NULL = FALSE specifies to unload empty strings in tables to empty string values without quotes enclosing the field values.

If set to TRUE, FIELD_OPTIONALLY_ENCLOSED_BY must specify a character to enclose strings.

Default

TRUE

SKIP_BYTE_ORDER_MARK = TRUE | FALSE

Use

Data loading only

Definition

Boolean that specifies whether to skip the BOM (byte order mark), if present in a data file. A BOM is a character code at the beginning of a data file that defines the byte order and encoding form.

If set to FALSE, Snowflake recognizes any BOM in data files, which could result in the BOM either causing an error or being merged into the first column in the table.

Default

TRUE

ENCODING = 'string'

Use

Data loading only

Definition

String (constant) that specifies the character set of the source data when loading data into a table.

Character Set	`ENCODING` Value	Supported Languages	Notes
Big5	`BIG5`	Traditional Chinese
EUC-JP	`EUCJP`	Japanese
EUC-KR	`EUCKR`	Korean
GB18030	`GB18030`	Chinese
IBM420	`IBM420`	Arabic
IBM424	`IBM424`	Hebrew
ISO-2022-CN	`ISO2022CN`	Simplified Chinese
ISO-2022-JP	`ISO2022JP`	Japanese
ISO-2022-KR	`ISO2022KR`	Korean
ISO-8859-1	`ISO88591`	Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish
ISO-8859-2	`ISO88592`	Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian
ISO-8859-5	`ISO88595`	Russian
ISO-8859-6	`ISO88596`	Arabic
ISO-8859-7	`ISO88597`	Greek
ISO-8859-8	`ISO88598`	Hebrew
ISO-8859-9	`ISO88599`	Turkish
KOI8-R	`KOI8R`	Russian
Shift_JIS	`SHIFTJIS`	Japanese
UTF-8	`UTF8`	All languages	For loading data from delimited files (CSV, TSV, etc.), UTF-8 is the default. . . For loading data from all other supported file formats (JSON, Avro, etc.), as well as unloading data, UTF-8 is the only supported character set.
UTF-16	`UTF16`	All languages
UTF-16BE	`UTF16BE`	All languages
UTF-16LE	`UTF16LE`	All languages
UTF-32	`UTF32`	All languages
UTF-32BE	`UTF32BE`	All languages
UTF-32LE	`UTF32LE`	All languages
windows-1250	`WINDOWS1250`	Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian
windows-1251	`WINDOWS1251`	Russian
windows-1252	`WINDOWS1252`	Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish
windows-1253	`WINDOWS1253`	Greek
windows-1254	`WINDOWS1254`	Turkish
windows-1255	`WINDOWS1255`	Hebrew
windows-1256	`WINDOWS1256`	Arabic

Default

UTF8

Note

Snowflake stores all data internally in the UTF-8 character set. The data is converted into UTF-8 before it is loaded into Snowflake. If the VALIDATE_UTF8 file format option is TRUE, Snowflake validates the UTF-8 character encoding in string column data after it is converted from its original character encoding.

TYPE = JSON¶

Use

Data loading only

Definition

When loading data, specifies the current compression algorithm for the data file. Snowflake uses this option to detect how an already-compressed data file was compressed so that the compressed data in the file can be extracted for loading.
When unloading data, compresses the data file using the specified compression algorithm.

Values

Supported Values	Notes
`AUTO`	When loading data, compression algorithm detected automatically, except for Brotli-compressed files, which cannot currently be detected automatically. When unloading data, files are automatically compressed using the default, which is gzip.
`GZIP`
`BZ2`
`BROTLI`	Must be specified if loading/unloading Brotli-compressed files.
`ZSTD`	Zstandard v0.8 (and higher) is supported.
`DEFLATE`	Deflate-compressed files (with zlib header, RFC1950).
`RAW_DEFLATE`	Raw Deflate-compressed files (without header, RFC1951).
`NONE`	When loading data, indicates that the files have not been compressed. When unloading data, specifies that the unloaded files are not compressed.

Default

AUTO

DATE_FORMAT = 'string' | AUTO

Use

Data loading only

Definition

Defines the format of date string values in the data files. If a value is not specified or is AUTO, the value for the DATE_INPUT_FORMAT parameter is used.

This file format option is applied to the following actions only:

Loading JSON data into separate columns using the MATCH_BY_COLUMN_NAME copy option.
Loading JSON data into separate columns by specifying a query in the COPY statement (i.e. COPY transformation).

Default

AUTO

TIME_FORMAT = 'string' | AUTO

Use

Data loading only

Definition

Defines the format of time string values in the data files. If a value is not specified or is AUTO, the value for the TIME_INPUT_FORMAT parameter is used.

This file format option is applied to the following actions only:

Loading JSON data into separate columns using the MATCH_BY_COLUMN_NAME copy option.
Loading JSON data into separate columns by specifying a query in the COPY statement (i.e. COPY transformation).

Default

AUTO

TIMESTAMP_FORMAT = string' | AUTO

Use

Data loading only

Definition

Defines the format of timestamp string values in the data files. If a value is not specified or is AUTO, the value for the TIMESTAMP_INPUT_FORMAT parameter is used.

This file format option is applied to the following actions only:

Loading JSON data into separate columns using the MATCH_BY_COLUMN_NAME copy option.
Loading JSON data into separate columns by specifying a query in the COPY statement (i.e. COPY transformation).

Default

AUTO

BINARY_FORMAT = HEX | BASE64 | UTF8

Use

Data loading only

Definition

Defines the encoding format for binary string values in the data files. The option can be used when loading data into binary columns in a table.

This file format option is applied to the following actions only:

Loading JSON data into separate columns using the MATCH_BY_COLUMN_NAME copy option.
Loading JSON data into separate columns by specifying a query in the COPY statement (i.e. COPY transformation).

Default

HEX

TRIM_SPACE = TRUE | FALSE

Use

Data loading only

Definition

Boolean that specifies whether to remove leading and trailing white space from strings.

For example, if your external database software encloses fields in quotes, but inserts a leading space, Snowflake reads the leading space rather than the opening quotation character as the beginning of the field (i.e. the quotation marks are interpreted as part of the string of field data). Set this option to TRUE to remove undesirable spaces during the data load.

This file format option is applied to the following actions only when loading JSON data into separate columns using the MATCH_BY_COLUMN_NAME copy option.

Default

FALSE

NULL_IF = ( 'string1' [ , 'string2' , ... ] )

Use

Data loading only

Definition

String used to convert to and from SQL NULL. Snowflake replaces these strings in the data load source with SQL NULL. To specify more than one string, enclose the list of strings in parentheses and use commas to separate each value.

This file format option is applied to the following actions only when loading JSON data into separate columns using the MATCH_BY_COLUMN_NAME copy option.

Note that Snowflake converts all instances of the value to NULL, regardless of the data type. For example, if 2 is specified as a value, all instances of 2 as either a string or number are converted.

For example:

NULL_IF = ('\\N', 'NULL', 'NUL', '')

Note that this option can include empty strings.

Default

\\N (i.e. NULL, which assumes the ESCAPE_UNENCLOSED_FIELD value is \\)

FILE_EXTENSION = 'string' | NONE

Use: Data unloading only
Definition: Specifies the extension for files unloaded to a stage. Accepts any extension. The user is responsible for specifying a file extension that can be read by any desired software or services.
Default: null, meaning the file extension is determined by the format type: .json[compression], where compression is the extension added by the compression method, if COMPRESSION is set.

ENABLE_OCTAL = TRUE | FALSE

Use: Data loading only
Definition: Boolean that enables parsing of octal numbers.
Default: FALSE

ALLOW_DUPLICATE = TRUE | FALSE

Use: Data loading only
Definition: Boolean that specifies to allow duplicate object field names (only the last one will be preserved).
Default: FALSE

STRIP_OUTER_ARRAY = TRUE | FALSE

Use: Data loading only
Definition: Boolean that instructs the JSON parser to remove outer brackets (i.e. [ ]).
Default: FALSE

STRIP_NULL_VALUES = TRUE | FALSE

Use

Data loading only

Definition

Boolean that instructs the JSON parser to remove object fields or array elements containing null values. For example, when set to TRUE:

Before	After
`[null]`	`[]`
`[null,null,3]`	`[,,3]`
`{"a":null,"b":null,"c":123}`	`{"c":123}`
`{"a":[1,null,2],"b":{"x":null,"y":88}}`	`{"a":[1,,2],"b":{"y":88}}`

Default

FALSE

REPLACE_INVALID_CHARACTERS = TRUE | FALSE

Use

Data loading only

Definition

Boolean that specifies whether to replace invalid UTF-8 characters with the Unicode replacement character (�). The copy option performs a one-to-one character replacement.

Values

If set to TRUE, Snowflake replaces invalid UTF-8 characters with the Unicode replacement character.

If set to FALSE, the load operation produces an error when invalid UTF-8 character encoding is detected.

Default

FALSE

IGNORE_UTF8_ERRORS = TRUE | FALSE

Use: Data loading only
Definition: Boolean that specifies whether UTF-8 encoding errors produce error conditions. If set to TRUE, any invalid UTF-8 sequences are silently replaced with the Unicode character U+FFFD (i.e. “replacement character”).

Note

This copy option removes all non-UTF-8 characters during the data load, but there is no guarantee of a one-to-one character replacement. We recommend using the REPLACE_INVALID_CHARACTERS copy option instead.
Default: FALSE

SKIP_BYTE_ORDER_MARK = TRUE | FALSE

Use

Data loading only

Definition

Boolean that specifies whether to skip the BOM (byte order mark), if present in a data file. A BOM is a character code at the beginning of a data file that defines the byte order and encoding form.

If set to FALSE, Snowflake recognizes any BOM in data files, which could result in the BOM either causing an error or being merged into the first column in the table.

Default

TRUE

TYPE = AVRO¶

Use

Data loading only

Definition

When loading data, specifies the current compression algorithm for the data file. Snowflake uses this option to detect how an already-compressed data file was compressed so that the compressed data in the file can be extracted for loading.
When unloading data, compresses the data file using the specified compression algorithm.

Values

Supported Values	Notes
`AUTO`	When loading data, compression algorithm detected automatically, except for Brotli-compressed files, which cannot currently be detected automatically. When unloading data, files are automatically compressed using the default, which is gzip.
`GZIP`
`BZ2`
`BROTLI`	Must be specified if loading/unloading Brotli-compressed files.
`ZSTD`	Zstandard v0.8 (and higher) is supported.
`DEFLATE`	Deflate-compressed files (with zlib header, RFC1950).
`RAW_DEFLATE`	Raw Deflate-compressed files (without header, RFC1951).
`NONE`	When loading data, indicates that the files have not been compressed. When unloading data, specifies that the unloaded files are not compressed.

Default

AUTO

TRIM_SPACE = TRUE | FALSE

Use

Data loading only

Definition

Boolean that specifies whether to remove leading and trailing white space from strings.

For example, if your external database software encloses fields in quotes, but inserts a leading space, Snowflake reads the leading space rather than the opening quotation character as the beginning of the field (i.e. the quotation marks are interpreted as part of the string of field data). Set this option to TRUE to remove undesirable spaces during the data load.

This file format option is applied to the following actions only when loading Avro data into separate columns using the MATCH_BY_COLUMN_NAME copy option.

Default

FALSE

NULL_IF = ( 'string1' [ , 'string2' , ... ] )

Use

Data loading only

Definition

String used to convert to and from SQL NULL. Snowflake replaces these strings in the data load source with SQL NULL. To specify more than one string, enclose the list of strings in parentheses and use commas to separate each value.

This file format option is applied to the following actions only when loading Avro data into separate columns using the MATCH_BY_COLUMN_NAME copy option.

Note that Snowflake converts all instances of the value to NULL, regardless of the data type. For example, if 2 is specified as a value, all instances of 2 as either a string or number are converted.

For example:

NULL_IF = ('\\N', 'NULL', 'NUL', '')

Note that this option can include empty strings.

Default

\\N (i.e. NULL, which assumes the ESCAPE_UNENCLOSED_FIELD value is \\)

TYPE = ORC¶

TRIM_SPACE = TRUE | FALSE

Use

Data loading only

Definition

Boolean that specifies whether to remove leading and trailing white space from strings.

For example, if your external database software encloses fields in quotes, but inserts a leading space, Snowflake reads the leading space rather than the opening quotation character as the beginning of the field (i.e. the quotation marks are interpreted as part of the string of field data). Set this option to TRUE to remove undesirable spaces during the data load.

This file format option is applied to the following actions only when loading Orc data into separate columns using the MATCH_BY_COLUMN_NAME copy option.

Default

FALSE

NULL_IF = ( 'string1' [ , 'string2' , ... ] )

Use

Data loading only

Definition

String used to convert to and from SQL NULL. Snowflake replaces these strings in the data load source with SQL NULL. To specify more than one string, enclose the list of strings in parentheses and use commas to separate each value.

This file format option is applied to the following actions only when loading Orc data into separate columns using the MATCH_BY_COLUMN_NAME copy option.

Note that Snowflake converts all instances of the value to NULL, regardless of the data type. For example, if 2 is specified as a value, all instances of 2 as either a string or number are converted.

For example:

NULL_IF = ('\\N', 'NULL', 'NUL', '')

Note that this option can include empty strings.

Default

\\N (i.e. NULL, which assumes the ESCAPE_UNENCLOSED_FIELD value is \\)

TYPE = PARQUET¶

COMPRESSION = AUTO | LZO | SNAPPY | NONE

Use: Data loading and unloading
Definition

When loading data, specifies the current compression algorithm for columns in the Parquet files.
When unloading data, compresses the data file using the specified compression algorithm.

Values

Supported Values	Notes
`AUTO`	When loading data, compression algorithm detected automatically. Supports the following compression algorithms: Brotli, gzip, Lempel–Ziv–Oberhumer (LZO), LZ4, Snappy, or Zstandard v0.8 (and higher). . When unloading data, unloaded files are compressed using the Snappy compression algorithm by default.
`LZO`	When unloading data, files are compressed using the Snappy algorithm by default. If unloading data to LZO-compressed files, specify this value.
`SNAPPY`	When unloading data, files are compressed using the Snappy algorithm by default. You can optionally specify this value.
`NONE`	When loading data, indicates that the files have not been compressed. When unloading data, specifies that the unloaded files are not compressed.

Default

AUTO

SNAPPY_COMPRESSION = TRUE | FALSE

Use

Data unloading only

AUTO | Unloaded files are compressed using the Snappy compression algorithm by default. SNAPPY | May be specified if unloading Snappy-compressed files. NONE | When loading data, indicates that the files have not been compressed. When unloading data, specifies that the unloaded files are not compressed.

Definition

Boolean that specifies whether unloaded file(s) are compressed using the SNAPPY algorithm.

Note

Deprecated. Use COMPRESSION = SNAPPY instead.

Limitations: Only supported for data unloading operations.
Default: TRUE

BINARY_AS_TEXT = TRUE | FALSE

Use: Data loading only
Definition: Boolean that specifies whether to interpret columns with no defined logical data type as UTF-8 text. When set to FALSE, Snowflake interprets these columns as binary data.
Limitations: Only supported for data loading operations.
Default: TRUE

TRIM_SPACE = TRUE | FALSE

Use

Data loading only

Definition

Boolean that specifies whether to remove leading and trailing white space from strings.

For example, if your external database software encloses fields in quotes, but inserts a leading space, Snowflake reads the leading space rather than the opening quotation character as the beginning of the field (i.e. the quotation marks are interpreted as part of the string of field data). Set this option to TRUE to remove undesirable spaces during the data load.

This file format option is applied to the following actions only when loading Parquet data into separate columns using the MATCH_BY_COLUMN_NAME copy option.

Default

FALSE

NULL_IF = ( 'string1' [ , 'string2' , ... ] )

Use

Data loading only

Definition

String used to convert to and from SQL NULL. Snowflake replaces these strings in the data load source with SQL NULL. To specify more than one string, enclose the list of strings in parentheses and use commas to separate each value.

This file format option is applied to the following actions only when loading Parquet data into separate columns using the MATCH_BY_COLUMN_NAME copy option.

Note that Snowflake converts all instances of the value to NULL, regardless of the data type. For example, if 2 is specified as a value, all instances of 2 as either a string or number are converted.

For example:

NULL_IF = ('\\N', 'NULL', 'NUL', '')

Note that this option can include empty strings.

Default

\\N (i.e. NULL, which assumes the ESCAPE_UNENCLOSED_FIELD value is \\)

TYPE = XML¶

Use

Data loading only

Definition

When loading data, specifies the current compression algorithm for the data file. Snowflake uses this option to detect how an already-compressed data file was compressed so that the compressed data in the file can be extracted for loading.
When unloading data, compresses the data file using the specified compression algorithm.

Values

Supported Values	Notes
`AUTO`	When loading data, compression algorithm detected automatically, except for Brotli-compressed files, which cannot currently be detected automatically. When unloading data, files are automatically compressed using the default, which is gzip.
`GZIP`
`BZ2`
`BROTLI`	Must be specified if loading/unloading Brotli-compressed files.
`ZSTD`	Zstandard v0.8 (and higher) is supported.
`DEFLATE`	Deflate-compressed files (with zlib header, RFC1950).
`RAW_DEFLATE`	Raw Deflate-compressed files (without header, RFC1951).
`NONE`	When loading data, indicates that the files have not been compressed. When unloading data, specifies that the unloaded files are not compressed.

Default

AUTO

IGNORE_UTF8_ERRORS = TRUE | FALSE

Use: Data loading only
Definition: Boolean that specifies whether UTF-8 encoding errors produce error conditions. If set to TRUE, any invalid UTF-8 sequences are silently replaced with Unicode character U+FFFD (i.e. “replacement character”).
Default: FALSE

PRESERVE_SPACE = TRUE | FALSE

Use: Data loading only
Definition: Boolean that specifies whether the XML parser preserves leading and trailing spaces in element content.
Default: FALSE

STRIP_OUTER_ELEMENT = TRUE | FALSE

Use: Data loading only
Definition: Boolean that specifies whether the XML parser strips out the outer XML element, exposing 2nd level elements as separate documents.
Default: FALSE

DISABLE_SNOWFLAKE_DATA = TRUE | FALSE

Use: Data loading only
Definition: Boolean that specifies whether the XML parser disables recognition of Snowflake semi-structured data tags.
Default: FALSE

DISABLE_AUTO_CONVERT = TRUE | FALSE

Use: Data loading only
Definition: Boolean that specifies whether the XML parser disables automatic conversion of numeric and Boolean values from text to native representation.
Default: FALSE

SKIP_BYTE_ORDER_MARK = TRUE | FALSE

Use

Data loading only

Definition

Boolean that specifies whether to skip any BOM (byte order mark) present in an input file. A BOM is a character code at the beginning of a data file that defines the byte order and encoding form.

If set to FALSE, Snowflake recognizes any BOM in data files, which could result in the BOM either causing an error or being merged into the first column in the table.

Default

TRUE

Copy Options (`copyOptions`)¶

You can specify one or more of the following copy options (separated by blank spaces, commas, or new lines):

ON_ERROR = CONTINUE | SKIP_FILE | SKIP_FILE_num | SKIP_FILE_num% | ABORT_STATEMENT

Use

Data loading only

Definition

String (constant) that specifies the error handling for the load operation.

Important

Carefully consider the ON_ERROR copy option value. The default value is appropriate in common scenarios, but is not always the best option.

Values

Supported Values

Notes

CONTINUE

Continue to load the file if errors are found. The COPY statement returns an error message for a maximum of one error found per data file.

Note that the difference between the ROWS_PARSED and ROWS_LOADED column values represents the number of rows that include detected errors. However, each of these rows could include multiple errors. To view all errors in the data files, use the VALIDATION_MODE parameter or query the VALIDATE function.

SKIP_FILE

Skip a file when an error is found.

Note that the SKIP_FILE action buffers an entire file whether errors are found or not. For this reason, SKIP_FILE is slower than either CONTINUE or ABORT_STATEMENT. Skipping large files due to a small number of errors could result in delays and wasted credits. When loading large numbers of records from files that have no logical delineation (e.g. the files were generated automatically at rough intervals), consider specifying CONTINUE instead.

Additional patterns:

SKIP_FILE_num (e.g. SKIP_FILE_10): Skip a file when the number of error rows found in the file is equal to or exceeds the specified number.
SKIP_FILE_num% (e.g. SKIP_FILE_10%): Skip a file when the percentage of error rows found in the file exceeds the specified percentage.

ABORT_STATEMENT

Abort the load operation if any error is found in a data file.

Note that the load operation is not aborted if the data file cannot be found (e.g. because it does not exist or cannot be accessed), except when data files explicitly specified in the FILES parameter cannot be found.

The following behaviors apply to this copy option:
- All ON_ERROR values work as expected when loading structured data files (CSV, TSV, etc.) with either parsing or transformation errors.
  
  However, semi-structured data files (JSON, Avro, ORC, Parquet, or XML) do not support the same behavior semantics as structured data files for the following ON_ERROR values: CONTINUE, SKIP_FILE_num, or SKIP_FILE_num% due to the design of those format types.
- Parquet and ORC data only. When ON_ERROR is set to CONTINUE, SKIP_FILE_num, or SKIP_FILE_num%, any parsing error results in the data file being skipped. Any conversion or transformation errors follow the default behavior of ABORT_STATEMENT (COPY INTO <table> statements) or SKIP_FILE (Snowpipe) regardless of the selected option value.
- JSON, XML, and Avro data only. When ON_ERROR is set to CONTINUE, SKIP_FILE_num, or SKIP_FILE_num%, all records up to the record that contains the parsing error are loaded, but the remainder of the records in the data file are skipped. Any conversion or transformation errors follow the default behavior of COPY (ABORT_STATEMENT) or Snowpipe (SKIP_FILE) regardless of selected option value.

Default

Bulk loading using COPY: ABORT_STATEMENT
Snowpipe: SKIP_FILE

SIZE_LIMIT = num

Use

Data loading only

Definition

Number (> 0) that specifies the maximum size (in bytes) of data to be loaded for a given COPY statement. When the threshold is exceeded, the COPY operation discontinues loading files. This option is commonly used to load a common group of files using multiple COPY statements. For each statement, the data load continues until the specified SIZE_LIMIT is exceeded, before moving on to the next statement.

For example, suppose a set of files in a stage path were each 10 MB in size. If multiple COPY statements set SIZE_LIMIT to 25000000 (25 MB), each would load 3 files. That is, each COPY operation would discontinue after the SIZE_LIMIT threshold was exceeded.

Note that at least one file is loaded regardless of the value specified for SIZE_LIMIT unless there is no file to be loaded.

Default

null (no size limit)

PURGE = TRUE | FALSE

Use

Data loading only

Definition

Boolean that specifies whether to remove the data files from the stage automatically after the data is loaded successfully.

If this option is set to TRUE, note that a best effort is made to remove successfully loaded data files. If the purge operation fails for any reason, no error is returned currently. We recommend that you list staged files periodically (using LIST) and manually remove successfully loaded files, if any exist.

Default

FALSE

RETURN_FAILED_ONLY = TRUE | FALSE

Use: Data loading only
Definition: Boolean that specifies whether to return only files that have failed to load in the statement result.
Default: FALSE

MATCH_BY_COLUMN_NAME = CASE_SENSITIVE | CASE_INSENSITIVE | NONE

Use

Data loading only

Definition

String that specifies whether to load semi-structured data into columns in the target table that match corresponding columns represented in the data.

This copy option is supported for the following data formats:

JSON
Avro
ORC
Parquet

For a column to match, the following criteria must be true:

The column represented in the data must have the exact same name as the column in the table. The copy option supports case sensitivity for column names. Column order does not matter.
The column in the table must have a data type that is compatible with the values in the column represented in the data. For example, string, number, and Boolean values can all be loaded into a variant column.

Values

CASE_SENSITIVE | CASE_INSENSITIVE

Load semi-structured data into columns in the target table that match corresponding columns represented in the data. Column names are either case-sensitive (CASE_SENSITIVE) or case-insensitive (CASE_INSENSITIVE).

The COPY operation verifies that at least one column in the target table matches a column represented in the data files. If a match is found, the values in the data files are loaded into the column or columns. If no match is found, a set of NULL values for each record in the files is loaded into the table.

Note

If additional non-matching columns are present in the data files, the values in these columns are not loaded.
If additional non-matching columns are present in the target table, the COPY operation inserts NULL values into these columns. These columns must support NULL values.
The COPY statement does not allow specifying a query to further transform the data during the load (i.e. COPY transformation).

NONE

The COPY operation loads the semi-structured data into a variant column or, if a query is included in the COPY statement, transforms the data.

Note

The following limitations currently apply:

MATCH_BY_COLUMN_NAME cannot be used with the VALIDATION_MODE parameter in a COPY statement to validate the staged data rather than load it into the target table.

Parquet data only. When MATCH_BY_COLUMN_NAME is set to CASE_SENSITIVE or CASE_INSENSITIVE, an empty column value (e.g. "col1": "") produces an error.

Default: NONE

ENFORCE_LENGTH = TRUE | FALSE

Use

Data loading only

Definition

Alternative syntax for TRUNCATECOLUMNS with reverse logic (for compatibility with other systems)

Boolean that specifies whether to truncate text strings that exceed the target column length:

If TRUE, the COPY statement produces an error if a loaded string exceeds the target column length.
If FALSE, strings are automatically truncated to the target column length.

This copy option supports CSV data, as well as string values in semi-structured data when loaded into separate columns in relational tables.

Note

If the length of the target string column is set to the maximum (e.g. VARCHAR (16777216)), an incoming string cannot exceed this length; otherwise, the COPY command produces an error.
This parameter is functionally equivalent to TRUNCATECOLUMNS, but has the opposite behavior. It is provided for compatibility with other databases. It is only necessary to include one of these two parameters in a COPY statement to produce the desired output.

Default: TRUE

TRUNCATECOLUMNS = TRUE | FALSE

Use

Data loading only

Definition

Alternative syntax for ENFORCE_LENGTH with reverse logic (for compatibility with other systems)

Boolean that specifies whether to truncate text strings that exceed the target column length:

If TRUE, strings are automatically truncated to the target column length.
If FALSE, the COPY statement produces an error if a loaded string exceeds the target column length.

This copy option supports CSV data, as well as string values in semi-structured data when loaded into separate columns in relational tables.

Note

If the length of the target string column is set to the maximum (e.g. VARCHAR (16777216)), an incoming string cannot exceed this length; otherwise, the COPY command produces an error.
This parameter is functionally equivalent to ENFORCE_LENGTH, but has the opposite behavior. It is provided for compatibility with other databases. It is only necessary to include one of these two parameters in a COPY statement to produce the desired output.

Default

FALSE

FORCE = TRUE | FALSE

Use: Data loading only
Definition: Boolean that specifies to load all files, regardless of whether they’ve been loaded previously and have not changed since they were loaded. Note that this option reloads files, potentially duplicating data in a table.
Default: FALSE

Usage Notes¶

Caution

Recreating a stage (using CREATE OR REPLACE STAGE) has the following additional, potentially undesirable, outcomes:

The existing directory table for the stage, if any, is dropped. If the stage is recreated with a directory table, the directory is empty by default.
The association breaks between the stage and any external table that references it.

This is because an external table links to a stage using a hidden ID rather than the name of the stage. Behind the scenes, the CREATE OR REPLACE syntax drops an object and recreates it with a different hidden ID.

If you must recreate a stage after it has been linked to one or more external tables, you must recreate each of the external tables (using CREATE OR REPLACE EXTERNAL TABLE) to reestablish the association. Call the GET_DDL function to retrieve a DDL statement to recreate each of the external tables.
Any pipes that reference the stage stop loading data. The execution status of the pipes changes to STOPPED_STAGE_DROPPED. To resume loading data, these pipe objects must be recreated (using the CREATE OR REPLACE PIPE syntax).

CREATE STAGE does not check whether the specified URL or credentials are valid. If the credentials are not valid, when you attempt to use the stage, the system returns an error.
If referencing a file format in the current namespace, you can omit the single quotes around the format identifier.
Regarding metadata:

Attention

Customers should ensure that no personal data (other than for a User object), sensitive data, export-controlled data, or other regulated data is entered as metadata when using the Snowflake service. For more information, see Metadata Fields in Snowflake.

Examples¶

Internal Stages¶

Create an internal stage with the default file format type (CSV):

All the corresponding default CSV file format options are used.

All the default copy options are used, except for ON_ERROR. If a COPY INTO <table> command that references this stage encounters a data error on any of the records, it skips the file.
CREATE STAGE my_int_stage
  COPY_OPTIONS = (ON_ERROR='skip_file');

Similar to the previous example, but specify server-side encryption for the stage:

CREATE STAGE my_int_stage
  ENCRYPTION = (TYPE = 'SNOWFLAKE_SSE')
  COPY_OPTIONS = (ON_ERROR='skip_file');

Create a temporary internal stage with all the same properties as the previous example, except the copy option to skip files on error:

CREATE TEMPORARY STAGE my_temp_int_stage;

Create a temporary internal stage that references a file format named my_csv_format (created using CREATE FILE FORMAT):

CREATE TEMPORARY STAGE my_int_stage
  FILE_FORMAT = my_csv_format;
When you reference the stage in a COPY INTO <table> statement, the file format options are automatically set.

Create an internal stage that includes a directory table. The stage references a file format named myformat:

CREATE STAGE mystage
  DIRECTORY = (ENABLE = TRUE)
  FILE_FORMAT = myformat;

External Stages¶

Amazon S3

Create an external stage using a private/protected S3 bucket named load with a folder path named files. Secure access to the S3 bucket is provided via the myint storage integration:
CREATE STAGE my_ext_stage
  URL='s3://load/files/'
  STORAGE_INTEGRATION = myint;
Create an external stage using a private/protected S3 bucket named load with a folder path named files. The Snowflake access permissions for the S3 bucket are associated with an IAM user; therefore, IAM credentials are required:
CREATE STAGE my_ext_stage1
  URL='s3://load/files/'
  CREDENTIALS=(AWS_KEY_ID='1a2b3c' AWS_SECRET_KEY='4x5y6z');
Note that the AWS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_KEY values used in this example are for illustration purposes only.
Create an external stage using an S3 bucket named load with a folder path named encrypted_files and client-side encryption (default encryption type) with the master key to decrypt/encrypt files stored in the bucket:
CREATE STAGE my_ext_stage2
  URL='s3://load/encrypted_files/'
  CREDENTIALS=(AWS_KEY_ID='1a2b3c' AWS_SECRET_KEY='4x5y6z')
  ENCRYPTION=(MASTER_KEY = 'eSxX0jzYfIamtnBKOEOwq80Au6NbSgPH5r4BDDwOaO8=');
Create an external stage using an S3 bucket named load with a folder path named encrypted_files and AWS_SSE_KMS server-side encryption with the ID for the master key to decrypt/encrypt files stored in the bucket:
CREATE STAGE my_ext_stage3
  URL='s3://load/encrypted_files/'
  CREDENTIALS=(AWS_KEY_ID='1a2b3c' AWS_SECRET_KEY='4x5y6z')
  ENCRYPTION=(TYPE='AWS_SSE_KMS' KMS_KEY_ID = 'aws/key');
Same example as the immediately preceding example, except that the Snowflake access permissions for the S3 bucket as associated with an IAM role instead of an IAM user. Note that credentials are handled separately from other stage parameters such as ENCRYPTION. Support for these other parameters is the same regardless of the credentials used to access your external S3 bucket:
CREATE STAGE my_ext_stage3
  URL='s3://load/encrypted_files/'
  CREDENTIALS=(AWS_ROLE='arn:aws:iam::001234567890:role/mysnowflakerole')
  ENCRYPTION=(TYPE='AWS_SSE_KMS' KMS_KEY_ID = 'aws/key');
Create a stage with a directory table in the active schema for the user session. The cloud storage URL includes the path files. The stage references a storage integration named my_storage_int:
CREATE STAGE mystage
  URL='s3://load/files/'
  STORAGE_INTEGRATION = my_storage_int
  DIRECTORY = (
    ENABLE = true
    AUTO_REFRESH = true
  );

Google Cloud Storage

Create an external stage using a private/protected GCS bucket named load with a folder path named files. Secure access to the GCS bucket is provided via the myint storage integration:
CREATE STAGE my_ext_stage
  URL='gcs://load/files/'
  STORAGE_INTEGRATION = myint;
Create a stage named mystage with a directory table in the active schema for the user session. The cloud storage URL includes the path files. The stage references a storage integration named my_storage_int:
CREATE STAGE mystage
  URL='gcs://load/files/'
  STORAGE_INTEGRATION = my_storage_int
  DIRECTORY = (
    ENABLE = true
    AUTO_REFRESH = true
    NOTIFICATION_INTEGRATION = 'MY_NOTIFICATION_INT'
  );

Microsoft Azure

Create an external stage using a private/protected Azure container named load with a folder path named files. Secure access to the container is provided via the myint storage integration:
CREATE STAGE my_ext_stage
  URL='azure://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/load/files/'
  STORAGE_INTEGRATION = myint;
Create an external stage using an Azure storage account named myaccount and a container named mycontainer with a folder path named files and client-side encryption enabled. The stage references a file format named my_csv_format:
CREATE STAGE mystage
  URL='azure://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/files/'
  CREDENTIALS=(AZURE_SAS_TOKEN='?sv=2016-05-31&ss=b&srt=sco&sp=rwdl&se=2018-06-27T10:05:50Z&st=2017-06-27T02:05:50Z&spr=https,http&sig=bgqQwoXwxzuD2GJfagRg7VOS8hzNr3QLT7rhS8OFRLQ%3D')
  ENCRYPTION=(TYPE='AZURE_CSE' MASTER_KEY = 'kPxX0jzYfIamtnJEUTHwq80Au6NbSgPH5r4BDDwOaO8=')
  FILE_FORMAT = my_csv_format;
(The AZURE_SAS_TOKEN and MASTER_KEY values used in this example are not actual values; they are provided for illustration purposes only.)
Create a stage with a directory table in the active schema for the user session. The cloud storage URL includes the path files. The stage references a storage integration named my_storage_int:
CREATE STAGE mystage
  URL='azure://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/load/files/'
  STORAGE_INTEGRATION = my_storage_int
  DIRECTORY = (
    ENABLE = true
    AUTO_REFRESH = true
    NOTIFICATION_INTEGRATION = 'MY_NOTIFICATION_INT'
  );

CREATE STAGE¶

Syntax¶

Required Parameters¶

Optional Parameters¶

Internal Stage Parameters (internalStageParams)¶

External Stage Parameters (externalStageParams)¶

Directory Table Parameters (directoryTableParams)¶

Format Type Options (formatTypeOptions)¶

TYPE = CSV¶

TYPE = JSON¶

TYPE = AVRO¶

TYPE = ORC¶

TYPE = PARQUET¶

TYPE = XML¶

Copy Options (copyOptions)¶

Usage Notes¶

Examples¶

Internal Stages¶

External Stages¶

Internal Stage Parameters (`internalStageParams`)¶

External Stage Parameters (`externalStageParams`)¶

Directory Table Parameters (`directoryTableParams`)¶

Format Type Options (`formatTypeOptions`)¶

Copy Options (`copyOptions`)¶