Introduction to external functions¶

What is an external function?¶

An external function calls code that is executed outside Snowflake.

The remotely executed code is known as a remote service.

Information sent to a remote service is usually relayed through a proxy service.

Snowflake stores security-related external function information in an API integration.

The diagram below shows the basic information flow from a client program, through Snowflake, and to the remote service:

Each of the key components is described in more detail below.

External Function:

An external function is a type of UDF. Unlike other UDFs, an external function does not contain its own code; instead, the external function calls code that is stored and executed outside Snowflake.

Inside Snowflake, the external function is stored as a database object that contains information that Snowflake uses to call the remote service. This stored information includes the URL of the proxy service that relays information to and from the remote service. This information is specified as part of the CREATE EXTERNAL FUNCTION command.

The database object that represents the external function is created in a specific database and schema. The external function can be called using dot notation to represent the fully-qualified name. For example:

select my_database.my_schema.my_external_function(col1) from table1;

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Remote Service:

The remotely executed code is known as a remote service.

The remote service must act like a function. For example, it must return a value.

Snowflake supports scalar external functions; the remote service must return exactly one row for each row received.

To be called by the Snowflake external function feature, the remote service must:

• Accept JSON inputs and return JSON outputs. (For more information about Snowflake-compatible HTTP headers and JSON formatted data, see Remote service input and output data formats.)

• Expose an HTTPS endpoint.

For example, a remote service can be implemented as:

• An AWS Lambda function.

• A Microsoft Azure Function.

• An HTTPS server (e.g. Node.js) running on an EC2 instance.

Proxy Service:

Snowflake does not call a remote service directly. Instead, Snowflake calls a proxy service, which relays the data to the remote service.

The proxy service can increase security by authenticating requests to the remote service.

The proxy service can support subscription-based billing for a remote service. For example, the proxy service can verify that a caller to the remote service is a paid subscriber.

The proxy service also relays the response from the remote service back to Snowflake.

Examples of proxy services include:

• Amazon API Gateway.

• Microsoft Azure API Management service.

API Integration:

An integration is a Snowflake object that provides an interface between Snowflake and third-party services. An API integration stores information, such as security information, that is needed to work with a proxy service or remote service.

An API integration is created with the CREATE API INTEGRATION command.

Users can write and call their own remote services, or call remote services written by third parties. These remote services can be written using any HTTP server stack, including cloud serverless compute services such as AWS Lambda.

From the perspective of a user running a SQL statement, an external function behaves like any other UDF . External functions follow these rules:

• External functions return a value.

• External functions can accept parameters.

• An external function can appear in any clause of a SQL statement in which other types of UDF can appear. For example:

  select my_external_function_2(column_1, column_2)
      from table_1;
  
  select col1
      from table_1
      where my_external_function_3(col2) < 0;
  
  create view view1 (col1) as
      select my_external_function_5(col1)
          from table9;
  

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• An external function can be part of a more complex expression:

  select upper(zipcode_to_city_external_function(zipcode))
    from address_table;
  

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• The returned value can be a compound value, such as a VARIANT that contains JSON.

• External functions can be overloaded; two different functions can have the same name but different signatures (different numbers or data types of input parameters).

How external functions work¶

Snowflake does not call a remote service directly. Instead, Snowflake calls the remote service through a cloud provider’s native HTTPS proxy service, for example API Gateway on AWS.

The main steps to call an external function are:

1. A user’s client program passes Snowflake a SQL statement that calls an external function.

2. When evaluating the external function as part of the query execution, Snowflake reads the external function definition and the corresponding API integration information.

   • The information from the external function definition includes:

     • The URL of the proxy service.

     • The name of the corresponding API integration.

   • The information from the API integration includes:

     • The proxy service resource to use. The resource contains information about the remote service, such as the location of that service.

     • The authentication information for that proxy service resource.

   Snowflake then composes an HTTP POST command that includes:

   • The data to be processed. This data is in JSON format.

   • HTTP header information. (Details are documented in CREATE EXTERNAL FUNCTION.)

   • Authentication information from the API integration.

   Snowflake then sends the POST request to the proxy service.

3. The proxy service receives the POST and then processes and forwards the request to the actual remote service. You can loosely think of the proxy service and resource as a “relay function” that calls the remote service.

4. The remote service processes the data and returns the result, which is passed back through the chain to the original SQL statement.

5. If the remote service responds with an HTTP code to signal asynchronous processing, then Snowflake sends one or more HTTP GET requests to retrieve the result from the remote service. Snowflake continues to send GET requests as long as it receives the response code to keep requesting, or until the external function times out or returns an error.

Typically, when a query has a large number of rows to send to a remote service, the rows are split into batches. Batches typically allow more parallelism and faster queries. In some cases, batches reduce overloading of the remote service.

A remote service returns 1 batch of rows for each batch received. For a scalar external function, the number of rows in the returned batch is equal to the number of rows in the received batch.

Each batch has a unique batch ID, which is included in each request sent from Snowflake to the remote service.

Retry operations (e.g. due to timeouts) are typically done at the batch level.

Advantages of external functions¶

External functions have the following advantages over other UDFs:

• The code for the remote service can be written in languages that other UDFs cannot be written in, including:

  • Go

  • C#

• Remote services can use functions and libraries that can’t be accessed by internal UDFs. For example, remote services can interface with commercially available third-party libraries, such as machine-learning scoring libraries.

• Developers can write remote services that can be called both from Snowflake and from other software written to use the same interface.

Limitations of external functions¶

External functions have the following limitations, which can be loosely grouped into creation-time limitations and execution-time limitations.

Billing for external functions usage¶

Using external functions incurs normal costs associated with:

• Snowflake warehouse usage.

• Data transfer.

In addition, you might need to pay indirect or third-party charges, including charges by the provider of the remote service. Charges can vary from vendor to vendor.

Supported platforms¶