Snowflake Data Warehousing

Everything is easier to learn in an account of your own. You sign up, find your way around the web interface, and meet the basics of users, roles and passwords that keep an account safe from the first day.

• Creating a trial account
• Finding your way around Snowsight
• Users and roles in plain terms
• Passwords and multi-factor authentication
• Good habits for a new account

You build A working trial account with a second user and a role that can read but not change data.

Data needs a place to live. You create databases, schemas and tables, choose column types, and see how the objects nest, so that you can find your way around any Snowflake account.

• Databases and schemas
• Creating tables and choosing column types
• Viewing and describing objects
• Naming objects well
• Cloning a table to experiment safely

You build A database with two schemas and three tables, named and described clearly.

SQL is the language of everything that follows. You select, filter, sort, join and group data, and write small queries you can read back a week later. No earlier SQL is assumed.

• SELECT, WHERE and ORDER BY
• Joining two tables
• GROUP BY and aggregate functions
• Inserting, updating and deleting rows
• Writing queries other people can read

You build Ten queries that answer questions about a small sales database.

Getting data in is the first real task. You insert rows with SQL, upload files to a stage, and use COPY INTO to load them into tables, then check what loaded and what did not.

• Inserting rows by hand and in bulk
• Stages and file formats
• COPY INTO from a stage
• Reading load results and errors
• Choosing a loading method for the job

You build A table loaded two ways, with a check that both loads contain the same rows.

Not all data arrives as rows and columns. You load JSON and XML into Snowflake, reach into nested values, and turn them into columns you can query and join like any other table.

• Semi-structured data in plain terms
• Loading JSON into a VARIANT column
• Reading nested values
• Loading and querying XML
• Turning nested values into columns

You build A flattened table built from a JSON file and a similar one built from XML.

You bring the pieces together: an account, a database, tables loaded in different ways, and queries that answer real questions. Along the way you notice what you would do differently next time.

• Choosing a small project and its data
• Creating the objects and loading the data
• Querying across structured and nested data
• Securing access with a role
• Reviewing what you built

You build A small, working database that holds structured and JSON data and answers five questions.