Prerequisites

This tutorial requires a database, table, and virtual warehouse to load and query data. Creating these Snowflake objects requires a Snowflake user with a role with the necessary access control permissions. In addition, SnowSQL is required to execute the SQL statements in the tutorial. Lastly, the tutorial requires CSV files containing sample data to load.

Note that you can complete the tutorial using an existing Snowflake warehouse, database and table, and your own local data files; however, for simplicity, we recommend using the Snowflake objects and set of data files we’ve provided.

Creating a User

To create the database, table, and virtual warehouse, you must be logged in as a Snowflake user with a role that grants you the privileges to create these objects.

  • If you are using a 30-day trial account, you can log in as the user that was created for the account. This user has the role with the privileges needed to create the objects.

  • If you do not have a Snowflake user, ask your account or security administrators (users with the ACCOUNTADMIN or SECURITYADMIN role) to create a user for you.

Installing SnowSQL

To install SnowSQL, see Installing SnowSQL.

Downloading Sample Data Files

For this tutorial you download sample employee data files in CSV format provided by Snowflake.

o download and unzip the sample data files:

  1. Download the set of sample data files. Right-click the name of the archive file, getting-started.zip and save the link/file to your local file system.

  2. Unzip the sample files. The tutorial assumes you unpacked files in to the following directories:

    • Linux/macOS: /tmp

    • Windows: C:\\temp

Each file has five data records. The data uses a comma (,) character as field delimiter. An example record is shown:

Althea,Featherstone,afeatherstona@sf_tuts.com,"8172 Browning Street, Apt B",Calatrava,7/12/2017

Note that there are no blank spaces before or after the commas separating the fields in each record. This is the default that Snowflake expects when loading CSV data.

Next: Step 1. Log into SnowSQL

Language: English