Sherpa of Data

Author: Kevin

  • Checking Out The Snowflake Packages

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    Kevin
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    When working with one of the many modern computer languages that use libraries, one of the many things to be aware of – as a developer – is the version of the libraries available for your usage. Since there are multiple languages in Snowflake that use libraries, let’s go over how to check out the…

  • When you have a really bad morning in Snowflake

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    Kevin
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    This week, I want to talk about something we’ve all done at least once – especially before our first cup of coffee in the morning. Yes, that’s right – dropping tables and databases. So we have our table from last time still existing in our database: We’re trying to get rid of a table from…

  • Getting New and Old Columns to a Table

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    Kevin
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    In my last post, we worked out how to change the data type of a field if it already existed and was found to need changing. This time, I want to add a fresh, new column to an existing table. In SQL Server, I would be doing something like the following. This works great if…

  • How to Efficiently Change Data Types in Snowflake for Optimal Performance

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    Kevin
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    When working with data, I usually have an idea of what type of data I will push into a field. Sometimes, for whatever reason, it is decided to change the type of data allowed in the field. Today, I want to show how that’s done in Snowflake. I will start out working with a simple…

  • Odd things found when working with data

    Odd things found when working with data

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    Sometimes, you’ll find all sorts of craziness when you’re working with data. Especially if you don’t expect there to be any craziness. Let me show you what I mean by a story of what I had happen just this week. In mapping some data from one database to another, I was asked to do the…

  • Even more Great Queries Using Query History

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    In our last post, we talked about some of my favorite queries I use in Snowflake to see various items of interest – such as finding the worst-performing queries. For today’s post, though, I want to talk about performance tuning. Yes, you read that right. We’re going to use query history to do some fun…

  • Some Great Queries Using the Query History

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    Now that we know so much about getting data from Snowflake using the query history, we should be able to get all kinds of data that will be helpful for us. In the next few queries, I want to provide some queries I use that should make your Snowflake usage a bit more useful. The…

  • Even more Query History in Snowflake

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    In previous posts, we have discussed differing ways of getting at the query history. In those posts, we discussed getting that data by the session or by a specific user. Today, I want to examine another way of getting to that data. This new way – is by warehouse. I have tried to set up…

  • Querying History By Sessions in Snowflake

    Querying History By Sessions in Snowflake

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    Last time, we talked about a query using the Query_History_By_User table function in Snowflake. This time, I want to discuss a similar table function named Query_History_By_Session. Thankfully, it works in a very similar fashion to Query_History_By_User. Yes, it shows the same information as Query_History_By_User, so I am not displaying it here. By the table function…

  • Cool Items in Snowflake that Aren’t in SQL Server

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    Yes, I know. The name of today’s post is certainly clickbait. But it’s true! There are so many things you can do in Snowflake that may – or may not – be possible in SQL Server, at least not without several tricks and possibly low-level querying. So, let’s start shall we? What did I run?…