Snowflake: The Definitive Guide

Chapter 3. Creating and Managing Snowflake Securable Database Objects

Within Snowflake, all data is stored in database tables. Snowflake database tables are logically structured into collections of rows and columns. This chapter focuses on the logical structure of databases and database objects, such as tables and views. The physical structure of Snowflake data storage, including Snowflake micro-partitions, will be explained in Chapter 9.

In this chapter, we will cover topics in a specific order because the series of examples build upon each other. We’ll start with creating databases and schemas, reviewing the INFORMATION_SCHEMA and ACCOUNT_USAGE views, and then creating tables and views. Next, we’ll learn about stages, stored procedures, and user-defined functions (UDFs). We’ll close out the chapter with pipes, sequences, streams, and tasks. All the objects discussed in this chapter are securable database objects (as shown in Figure 3-1).

A Snowflake securable object is an entity for which you grant access to specific roles. Roles, which have been granted access privileges, are assigned to users. A Snowflake user can be either an individual person or an application. Users and roles will be discussed in Chapter 5.

In the previous chapter, we completed hands-on exercises with Snowflake virtual warehouses. Snowflake resource monitors, used to help manage virtual warehouses, will be explained in detail in Chapter 8.

Figure 3-1. Snowflake account entities

Prep Work

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