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External tables enable querying data stored in ECS for analysis without first loading it into Snowflake. The CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE command references the EXTERNAL STAGE to allow connectivity to ECS located in Faction’s cloud adjacent storage environment.
The following example creates a table using the Parquet format. Apache Parquet is an open source, column-oriented file format designed for efficient data storage and retrieval. It provides efficient data compression and encoding schemes with enhanced performance to handle complex data in bulk.
create or replace external table ext_nyc_tripdata (
vendor_name TEXT as (value:vendor_name::TEXT),
Trip_Pickup_DateTime TEXT as (value:Trip_Pickup_DateTime::TEXT),
Trip_Dropoff_DateTime TEXT as (value:Trip_Dropoff_DateTime::TEXT),
Passenger_Count NUMBER(38, 0) as (value:Passenger_Count::NUMBER(38, 0)),
Trip_Distance REAL as (value:Trip_Distance::REAL),
Start_Lon REAL as (value:Start_Lon::REAL),
Start_Lat REAL as (value:Start_Lat::REAL),
rate_code REAL as (value:rate_code::REAL),
store_and_forward REAL as (value:store_and_forward::REAL),
End_Lon REAL as (value:End_Lon::REAL),
End_Lat REAL as (value:End_Lat::REAL),
Payment_Type TEXT as (value:Payment_Type::TEXT),
Fare_Amt REAL as (value:Fare_Amt::REAL),
surcharge REAL as (value:surcharge::REAL),
Tip_Amt REAL as (value:Tip_Amt::REAL),
Tolls_Amt REAL as (value:Tolls_Amt::REAL),
Total_Amt REAL as (value:Total_Amt::REAL)
)
location = @ext_nyc_tripdata_stage
auto_refresh = false
file_format = (type = parquet);