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.

  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.

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