Video | Snowflake | Data engineering | Data prep

Getting started with the Snowflake PT-2: Loading data

I work through Snowflake's official lab to load 61 million rows of CityBike data — stage, file format, COPY INTO and all.

Watch on YouTube
  • Snowflake 'warehouses' aren't storage in the traditional sense — they're compute units you size (XS to 4XL) for performance, and you're charged based on usage rather than flat storage.
  • Loading data follows a clear sequence: create a database and table, create an external stage pointing to the S3 bucket, define a file format, then COPY INTO the table.
  • You can do everything via the visual UI or via SQL — the lab worksheet provides ready-made scripts, but you must run sections one at a time and never tick 'run all queries'.
  • An external stage just tells Snowflake where your source data lives (e.g. an S3 bucket) before it's loaded in, acting as a holding area.
  • When a COPY fails on a gzip file, the UI-created file format may not apply compression correctly — running the provided SQL to create the file format fixed the load.

Future-proof your career https://n1d.io

| My Courses on Linkedin Learning: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/instructors/tim-ngwena Following on from the last video, we get stuck into the Snowflake guide on getting started with Snowflake.

Find the guide here: https://j.mp/3nYHYPo

Intro 0:00
The overview of the interface 2:52
The snowflake web UI toolbar & Databases 4:29
Snowflake Shares 7:37
Snowflake data marketplace 8:32
Snowflake warehouses 9:42
Snowflake worksheets 15:22
Snowflake History 16:09
Snowflake admin tab 18:55
Preparing to load data into Snowflake 21:06
Setting up the database in Snowflake 22:37
Set Context for the worksheet in Snowflake 25:24
Run a query in the Snowflake web interface 27:49
Viewing a table and creating a stage in Snowflake 31:28
List files in an S3 bucket in Snowflake 36:29
Create a file format in Snowflake 38:02
Loading Data and debugging the file format 41:10
Main Timeline 52:25 Share feedback and Suggestions: https://tableautim.canny.io/suggestions -

Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw/join ----------
(C) 2023 TN-Media LTD. No re-use, unauthorized use, or redistribution, of this video without prior permission.

The Drilldown
a just-tim newsletter

Liked this? Get the honest take most weeks.

New essays about the industry as they land. My running read on what's worth your attention. By email or on LinkedIn.

5,323 subscribers and counting

or
inRead it on LinkedIn

Email via beehiiv. No spam, unsubscribe any time.