CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE

Description

Currently Snowconvert is transforming CREATE EXTERNAL TABLES to regular tables, that implies additional effort because data stored in external RedShift tables must be transferred to the Snowflake database.

Grammar Syntax

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE
external_schema.table_name
(column_name data_type [, …] )
[ PARTITIONED BY (col_name data_type [, … ] )]
[ { ROW FORMAT DELIMITED row_format |
  ROW FORMAT SERDE 'serde_name'
  [ WITH SERDEPROPERTIES ( 'property_name' = 'property_value' [, ...] ) ] } ]
STORED AS file_format
LOCATION { 's3://bucket/folder/' | 's3://bucket/manifest_file' }
[ TABLE PROPERTIES ( 'property_name'='property_value' [, ...] ) ]

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE
external_schema.table_name
[ PARTITIONED BY (col_name [, … ] ) ]
[ ROW FORMAT DELIMITED row_format ]
STORED AS file_format
LOCATION { 's3://bucket/folder/' }
[ TABLE PROPERTIES ( 'property_name'='property_value' [, ...] ) ]
 AS
 { select_statement }

Click here to go to the specification for this syntax.

Sample Source Patterns

Input Code:

Redshift

IN -> Redshift_01.sql

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE
external_schema.sales_data
(
    sales_id INT,
    product_id INT,
    sales_amount DECIMAL(10, 2),
    sales_date DATE
)
ROW FORMAT DELIMITED
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
STORED AS TEXTFILE
LOCATION 's3://mybucket/sales_data/';

Output Code:

Snowflake

OUT -> Redshift_01.sql

--** SSC-FDM-0004 - EXTERNAL TABLE TRANSLATED TO REGULAR TABLE **
CREATE TABLE external_schema.sales_data
(
    sales_id INT,
    product_id INT,
    sales_amount DECIMAL(10, 2),
    sales_date DATE
)
--ROW FORMAT DELIMITED
--FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
--STORED AS TEXTFILE
--LOCATION 's3://mybucket/sales_data/'
COMMENT = '{ "origin": "sf_sc", "name": "snowconvert", "version": {  "major": 0,  "minor": 0,  "patch": "0" }, "attributes": {  "component": "redshift",  "convertedOn": "09/17/2024" }}'
;

Create External Table AS

Input Code:

Redshift

IN -> Redshift_02.sql

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE spectrum.partitioned_lineitem
PARTITIONED BY (l_shipdate, l_shipmode)
STORED AS parquet
LOCATION 'S3://amzn-s3-demo-bucket/cetas/partitioned_lineitem/'
AS SELECT l_orderkey, l_shipmode, l_shipdate, l_partkey FROM local_table;

Output Code:

Snowflake

OUT -> Redshift_02.sql

--** SSC-FDM-0004 - EXTERNAL TABLE TRANSLATED TO REGULAR TABLE **
CREATE TABLE spectrum.partitioned_lineitem
COMMENT = '{ "origin": "sf_sc", "name": "snowconvert", "version": {  "major": 0,  "minor": 0,  "patch": "0" }, "attributes": {  "component": "redshift",  "convertedOn": "09/17/2024" }}'
--PARTITIONED BY (l_shipdate, l_shipmode)
--STORED AS parquet
--LOCATION 'S3://amzn-s3-demo-bucket/cetas/partitioned_lineitem/'
AS SELECT l_orderkey, l_shipmode, l_shipdate, l_partkey FROM
local_table;

Recommendations

• For the usage of Create External Table in Snowflake you may refer to Snowflake's documentation.

Related EWIs

1. SSC-FDM-0004: External table translated to regular table