Data types

Current Data types conversion for Redshift in Snowconvert.

Snowflake supports most basic SQL data types (with some restrictions) for use in columns, local variables, expressions, parameters, and any other appropriate/suitable locations.

Numeric Data Types

Redshift	Snowflake	Notes
INT	INT	Snowflake's INT is an alias for NUMBER.
INT2	SMALLINT	Snowflake's INT2 is an alias for NUMBER.
INT4	INTEGER	Snowflake's INT4 is an alias for NUMBER.
INT8	INTEGER	Snowflake's INT8 is an alias for NUMBER.
INTEGER	INTEGER	Snowflake's INTEGER is an alias for NUMBER.
BIGINT	BIGINT	Snowflake's BIGINT is an alias for NUMBER.
DECIMAL	DECIMAL	Snowflake's DECIMAL is an alias for NUMBER.
DOUBLE PRECISION	DOUBLE PRECISION	Snowflake's DOUBLE PRECISION is an alias for FLOAT.
NUMERIC​	NUMERIC	Snowflake's NUMERIC is an alias for NUMBER.
SMALLINT	SMALLINT	Snowflake's SMALLINT is an alias for NUMBER.
FLOAT	FLOAT	Snowflake uses double-precision (64 bit) IEEE 754 floating-point numbers.
FLOAT4	FLOAT4	Snowflake's FLOAT4 is an alias for FLOAT.
FLOAT8	FLOAT8	Snowflake's FLOAT8 is an alias for FLOAT.
REAL	REAL​	Snowflake's REAL is an alias for FLOAT.

Character Types

Redshift	Snowflake	Notes
VARCHAR	VARCHAR	VARCHAR holds Unicode UTF-8 characters. If no length is specified, the default is the maximum allowed length (16,777,216).
CHAR	CHAR	Snowflake's CHAR is an alias for VARCHAR.
CHARACTER	CHARACTER	Snowflake's CHARACTER is an alias for VARCHAR.
NCHAR	NCHAR	Snowflake's NCHAR is an alias for VARCHAR.
BPCHAR	VARCHAR	BPCHAR data type is not supported in Snowflake. VARCHAR is used instead. For more information please refer to SSC-FDM-PG0002.
NVARCHAR	NVARCHAR	Snowflake's NVARCHAR is an alias for VARCHAR.
CHARACTER VARYING	CHARACTER VARYING	Snowflake's CHARACTER VARYING is an alias for VARCHAR.
NATIONAL CHARACTER	NCHAR	Snowflake's NCHAR is an alias for VARCHAR.
NATIONAL CHARACTER VARYING	NCHAR VARYING	Snowflake's NCHAR VARYING is an alias for VARCHAR.
TEXT	TEXT	Snowflake's TEXT is an alias for VARCHAR.
NAME (Special character type)	VARCHAR	VARCHAR holds Unicode UTF-8 characters. If no length is specified, the default is the maximum allowed length (16,777,216).

When the MAX precision argument is present in the Redshift data types, they are transformed to the default max precision supported by Snowflake.

Boolean Types

Redshift	Snowflake	Notes
BOOL	BOOLEAN
BOOLEAN	BOOLEAN

Binary Data Types

Redshift	Snowflake	Notes
VARBYTE	VARBINARY	VARBINARY is synonymous with BINARY.
VARBINARY	VARBINARY	VARBINARY is synonymous with BINARY.
BINARY	BINARY	The maximum length is 8 MB (8,388,608 bytes)
BINARY VARYING	BINARY VARYING	BINARY VARYING is synonymous with BINARY.

The maximum length for binary types in Redshift is 16 MB (16,777,216 bytes), however in Snowflake it is 8 MB (8,388,608 bytes). Please consider this reduction in the maximum length.

Date & Time Data Types

Redshift	Snowflake	Notes
DATE	DATE	DATE accepts dates in the most common forms (YYYY-MM-DD, DD-MON-YYYY, etc.)
TIME	TIME	Storing times in the form of HH:MI:SS. Time precision can range from 0 (seconds) to 9 (nanoseconds). The default precision is 9.
TIMETZ	TIME	Time zone not supported for time data type. For more information please refer to SSC-FDM-0005.
TIME WITH TIME ZONE	TIME	Time zone not supported for time data type. For more information please refer to SSC-FDM-0005.
TIME WITHOUT TIME ZONE	TIME	Snowflake supports a single TIME data type for storing times in the form of HH:MI:SS.
TIMESTAMP	TIMESTAMP	Timestamp precision can range from 0 (seconds) to 9 (nanoseconds).
TIMESTAMPTZ	TIMESTAMP_TZ	TIMESTAMP_TZ internally stores UTC time together with an associated time zone offset.
TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE	TIMESTAMP_TZ	TIMESTAMP_TZ internally stores UTC time together with an associated time zone offset.
TIMESTAMP WITHOUT TIME ZONE	TIMESTAMP_NTZ	TIMESTAMP_NTZ internally stores “wallclock” time with a specified precision.
INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH	VARCHAR	The interval data type is not supported by Snowflake. Transformed to VARCHAR.
INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND	VARCHAR	The interval data type is not supported by Snowflake. Transformed to VARCHAR.

Other data types

Redshift	Snowflake	Notes
GEOMETRY	GEOMETRY	The coordinates are represented as pairs of real numbers (x, y). Currently, only 2D coordinates are supported.
GEOGRAPHY	GEOGRAPHY	The GEOGRAPHY data type follows the WGS 84 standard.
HLLSKETCH	N/A	Data type not supported in Snowflake. For more information please refer to SSC-EWI-RS0004.
SUPER	VARIANT	Can contain a value of any other data type, including OBJECT and ARRAY values.

Related EWIs

1. SSC-FDM-PG0002: Bpchar converted to varchar.
2. SSC-FDM-0005: TIME ZONE not supported for time data type.
3. SSC-EWI-0036: Data type converted to another data type.
4. SSC-EWI-RS0004: HLLSKETCH data type not supported in Snowflake.