File Format

You can provide configuration to Snowflake Object Lifecycle Engine for the following operations with file format:

• Manage the lifecycle of new and existing file formats
• Manage grants of file format

Usage

note

We have introduced SOLE for Data Products as a new framework for SOLE to help you easily build an ecosystem of data products. The major difference is in how you define Snowflake objects in the configuration file. Rather than having a grouped collection of objects, SOLE for Data Products goes for modular, self-describing, and explicit object definition.
Learn more about SOLE for Data Products, currently available as a public preview.

We have also introduced Data products as an extra layer on top of the data product platform capabilities making managing data products easier than ever. Learn more about Data Products, currently available as a private preview.

Default Configuration

databases:
  <database-name>:
    schemas:
      <schema-name>:
        file_formats:
          <format-name>:
            <configuration-key>: <value>
            grants:
              <privilege>:
                - <role-name>
                - <role-name>

Data Products Configuration

- file_format:
    name: <format-name>
    <configuration-key>: <value>
    database: rel(database.<database-name>)
    schema: rel(schema.<schema-name>)
    grants:
      <privilege>:
        - rel(role.<role-name>)
        - rel(role.<role-name>)

Supported parameters

The engine supports the parameters listed below.

Configuration Key	Required/Optional	Data Types and Values	Description
format_type	Required	String: For info on format-specific options, see CSV, JSON, AVRO, ORC, PARQUET, and XML	Specifies the format of the data files to load
comment	Optional	String	Specifies a comment for the file format
deleted	Optional	Boolean: True enables deletion prevention, False does nothing	Specifies what objects are allowed to be deleted
grants	Optional	Map: See Supported file_format Grants to Roles	List of Privileges and Roles to which privileges are granted on the current file format
manage_mode	Optional	String: all (default), none, grants	Configures what properties to manage for the file format. See Changing Manage Mode before changing the value.

Additional parameters

format_type set to CSV

Configuration Key	Required/Optional	Data Types and Values	Description
binary_format	Optional	String: HEX (default), BASE64, UTF8	Defines the encoding format for binary input or output
compression	Optional	String: AUTO (default), GZIP, BZ2, BROTLI, ZSTD, DEFLATE, RAW_DEFLATE, NONE	Specifies the current compression algorithm for the data file
date_format	Optional	String: AUTO (default)	Defines the format of date values in the data files
encoding	Optional	String: UTF8 (default)	Specifies the character set of the source data when loading it into a table
empty_field_as_null	Optional	Boolean: TRUE (default)	Specifies whether to insert SQL NULL for empty fields in an input file, which are represented by two successive delimiters
error_on_column_count_mismatch	Optional	Boolean	Specifies whether to generate a parsing error if the number of delimited columns (i.e. fields) in an input file does not match the number of columns in the corresponding table
escape	Optional	String: NONE (default)	Specifies the character set of the source data when loading it into a table
escape_unenclosed_field	Optional	String: (\\) (default)	Single character string used as the escape character for unenclosed field values only. Note: Due to a parsing issue, double backslashes (\\) are converted to single backslashes (\).
field_delimiter	Optional	String: , (default)	Specifies one or more single-byte or multibyte characters that separate fields in the data file
field_optionally_enclosed_by	Optional	String	Character used to enclose strings
file_extension	Optional	String	Specifies the extension for files unloaded to a stage
null_if	Optional	List/array of string: \\N (default)	Converts to and from SQL NULL. Note: Due to a parsing issue, double backslashes (\\) are converted to single backslashes (\). This results in DataOps always detecting a change between the target configuration and Snowflake and applying an update to the file format.
file_extension	Optional	String	Specifies the extension for files unloaded to a stage
record_delimiter	Optional	String: \n (default)	Specifies one or more single-byte or multibyte characters that separate records in the data file
replace_invalid_characters	Optional	Boolean	Specifies whether to replace invalid UTF-8 characters with the Unicode replacement character
skip_byte_order_mark	Optional	Boolean	Specifies whether to skip the BOM (byte order mark) if present in a data file
skip_header	Optional	Integer: 0 (default)	Number of lines at the start of the file to skip
skip_blank_lines	Optional	Boolean: FALSE (default)	Specifies to skip any blank lines encountered in the data files
time_format	Optional	String: AUTO (default)	Format of time values in the data files
timestamp_format	Optional	String: AUTO (default)	Format of timestamp values in the data files
trim_space	Optional	Boolean: FALSE (default)	Specifies whether to remove white space from fields

info

For more information, see the Snowflake Docs.

format_type set to JSON

Configuration Key	Required/Optional	Data Types and Values	Description
allow_duplicate	Optional	Boolean: FALSE (default)	Allows duplicate object field names
binary_format	Optional	String: HEX (default), BASE64, UTF8	Defines the encoding format for binary input or output
compression	Optional	String: AUTO (default), GZIP, BZ2, BROTLI, ZSTD, DEFLATE, RAW_DEFLATE, NONE	Specifies the current compression algorithm for the data file
date_format	Optional	String: AUTO (default)	Defines the format of date values in the data files
deleted	Optional	Boolean: True enables deletion prevention, False does nothing	Specifies what objects are allowed to be deleted
enable_octal	Optional	Boolean: FALSE (default)	Enables parsing of octal numbers
file_extension	Optional	String	Specifies the extension for files unloaded to a stage
ignore_utf8_errors	Optional	Boolean: FALSE (default)	Specifies whether UTF-8 encoding errors produce error conditions
null_if	Optional	List/array of string: \\N (default)	Converts to and from SQL NULL. Note: Due to a parsing issue, double backslashes (\\) are converted to single backslashes (\). This results in DataOps always detecting a change between the target configuration and Snowflake and applying an update to the file format.
replace_invalid_characters	Optional	Boolean: FALSE (default)	Specifies whether to replace invalid UTF-8 characters with the Unicode replacement character
strip_outer_array	Optional	Boolean: FALSE (default)	Tells the JSON parser to remove outer brackets
skip_byte_order_mark	Optional	Boolean: FALSE (default)	specifies whether to skip the BOM (byte order mark) if present in a data file
strip_null_values	Optional	Boolean: FALSE (default)	Tells the JSON parser to remove object fields or array elements containing null values
time_format	Optional	String: AUTO (default)	Format of time values in the data files
timestamp_format	Optional	String: AUTO (default)	Defines the format of timestamp values in the data files
trim_space	Optional	Boolean: FALSE (default)	specifies whether to remove white space from fields

info

For more information, see the Snowflake Docs.

format_type set to AVRO

Configuration Key	Required/Optional	Data Types and Values	Description
compression	Optional	String: AUTO, GZIP, BZ2, BROTLI, ZSTD, DEFLATE, RAW_DEFLATE, NONE	Specifies the current compression algorithm for the data file
null_if	Optional	List/array of string	Converts to and from SQL NULL
trim_space	Optional	Boolean	specifies whether to remove white space from fields

info

For more information, see the Snowflake Docs.

format_type set to ORC

Configuration Key	Required/Optional	Data Types and Values	Description
null_if	Optional	List/array of string	Converts to and from SQL NULL
trim_space	Optional	Boolean	specifies whether to remove white space from fields

info

For more information, see the Snowflake Docs.

format_type set to PARQUET

Configuration Key	Required/Optional	Data Types and Values	Description
binary_as_text	Optional	Boolean: TRUE (default)	Specifies whether to interpret columns with no defined logical data type as UTF-8 text
compression	Optional	String: AUTO (default), LZO, SNAPPY, NONE	Specifies the current compression algorithm for the data file
null_if	Optional	List/array of string: [] (default)	Converts to and from SQL NULL
trim_space	Optional	Boolean: FALSE (default)	specifies whether to remove white space from fields

info

For more information, see the Snowflake Docs.

format_type set to XML

Configuration Key	Required/Optional	Data Types and Values	Description
compression	Optional	String: AUTO, GZIP, BZ2, BROTLI, ZSTD, DEFLATE, RAW_DEFLATE, NONE	Specifies the current compression algorithm for the data file
disable_snowflake_data	Optional	Boolean	Specifies whether the XML parser disables recognition of Snowflake semi-structured data tags
disable_auto_convert	Optional	Boolean	Specifies whether the XML parser disables automatic conversion of numeric and Boolean values from text to native representation
ignore_utf8_errors	Optional	Boolean	Specifies whether UTF-8 encoding errors produce error conditions
preserve_space	Optional	Boolean	Specifies whether the XML parser preserves leading and trailing spaces in element content
strip_outer_element	Optional	Boolean	Specifies whether the XML parser strips out the outer XML element, exposing 2nd level elements as separate documents
skip_byte_order_mark	Optional	Boolean	specifies whether to skip the BOM (byte order mark) if present in a data file

info

For more information, see the Snowflake Docs.

Supported file format grants to roles

Following are the privileges you can grant to roles in the file format definition:

• ALL PRIVILEGES
• USAGE
• OWNERSHIP

ALL PRIVILEGES handling

When you define ALL PRIVILEGES in the SOLE configuration file, you grant all the privileges listed above to roles on this object except OWNERSHIP. However, the management of ALL PRIVILEGES in SOLE differs from its handling in Snowflake. See Handling ALL PRIVILEGES in SOLE for more information.

Examples

file_format with required params

Default Configuration

databases:
  SALES_RECORD:
    comment: "product sales record"
    schemas:
      SALES_RECORD_DAILY:
        comment: "SALES_RECORD_DAILY"
        file_formats:
          FILE_FORMAT_1:
            format_type: CSV
            grants:
              USAGE:
                - ROLE_1

Data Products Configuration

- file_format:
    name: FILE_FORMAT_1
    database: rel(database.SALES_RECORD)
    schema: rel(schema.SALES_RECORD_DAILY)
    format_type: CSV
    grants:
      USAGE:
        - rel(role.ROLE_1)

file_format with format-specific options

Default Configuration

databases:
  SALES_RECORD_ANNUAL:
    comment: "Database For SALES_RECORD_ANNUAL"
    schemas:
      SALES_RECORD:
        comment: "Schema one"
        file_formats:
          ANNUAL_REPORT_1:
            format_type: CSV
            compression: AUTO
            binary_format: HEX
            record_delimiter: "\n"

Data Products Configuration

- file_format:
    name: ANNUAL_REPORT_1
    database: rel(database.SALES_RECORD_ANNUAL)
    schema: rel(schema.SALES_RECORD)
    format_type: CSV
    compression: AUTO
    binary_format: HEX
    record_delimiter: "\n"

file_format with all format-specific options

Default Configuration

databases:
  SALES_RECORD_ANNUAL:
    comment: "Database For SALES_RECORD_ANNUAL"
    schemas:
      SALES_RECORD:
        comment: "Schema one"
        file_formats:
          ANNUAL_REPORT_2:
            format_type: JSON
            compression: "AUTO"
            binary_format: "HEX"
            comment: "File format for type JSON"
            trim_space: false
            enable_octal: false
            strip_outer_array: false
            strip_null_values: false
            replace_invalid_characters: false
            ignore_utf8_errors: true
            skip_byte_order_mark: false
            allow_duplicate: true
            date_format: "AUTO"
            time_format: "AUTO"
            timestamp_format: "AUTO"
            file_extension: ".json"
            null_if:
              - "NULL"
              - "null"
            grants:
              USAGE:
                - ANALYST
                - MARKETING

Data Products Configuration

- file_format:
    name: ANNUAL_REPORT_2
    database: rel(database.SALES_RECORD_ANNUAL)
    schema: rel(schema.SALES_RECORD)
    format_type: JSON
    compression: "AUTO"
    binary_format: "HEX"
    comment: "File format for type JSON"
    trim_space: false
    enable_octal: false
    strip_outer_array: false
    strip_null_values: false
    replace_invalid_characters: false
    ignore_utf8_errors: true
    skip_byte_order_mark: false
    allow_duplicate: true
    date_format: "AUTO"
    time_format: "AUTO"
    timestamp_format: "AUTO"
    file_extension: ".json"
    null_if:
      - "NULL"
      - "null"
    grants:
      USAGE:
        - rel(role.ANALYST)
        - rel(role.MARKETING)