← All Cheat Codes Library / Cheat Codes / Snowflake

❄️ Snowflake Cheat Codes

Snowflake Cheat Codes

Snowflake Cheat Codes for QUALIFY, Zero-Copy Cloning, Time Travel, Snowpipe, and VARIANT fields. 20 essential cheat codes ready to copy and execute.

🌐 All Engines 🐘 PostgreSQL 🐬 MySQL 🪶 SQLite 🔴 Oracle Database 💻 Microsoft SQL Server 🍃 MongoDB 🔴 Redis ❄️ Snowflake 🍒 ClickHouse 🦆 DuckDB

# 1 SELECT DQL

Retrieve analytical column datasets.

Syntax:

SELECT col1, col2 FROM tbl;

Working Example:

SELECT user_id, amount FROM sales;

# 2 WHERE DQL

Filter output rows.

Syntax:

SELECT * FROM tbl WHERE col = val;

Working Example:

SELECT * FROM orders WHERE status = 'completed';

# 3 JOIN Joins

Join two tables on condition.

Syntax:

SELECT * FROM t1 JOIN t2 ON t1.id = t2.fk;

Working Example:

SELECT u.name, s.amount FROM users u JOIN sales s ON u.id = s.user_id;

# 4 GROUP BY Aggregations

Group rows for aggregate totals.

Syntax:

SELECT col, SUM(x) FROM tbl GROUP BY col;

Working Example:

SELECT region, SUM(amount) FROM sales GROUP BY region;

# 5 QUALIFY SQL Extensions

Filter window function outputs directly without subquery wrappers.

Syntax:

SELECT col, ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY grp ORDER BY val DESC) as rn FROM tbl QUALIFY rn = 1;

Working Example:

SELECT employee_id, dept, salary, ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY dept ORDER BY salary DESC) as rn FROM emp QUALIFY rn = 1;

# 6 PIVOT Analytics

Rotate row values into reporting columns.

Syntax:

SELECT * FROM tbl PIVOT (SUM(val) FOR col IN ('Q1', 'Q2'));

Working Example:

SELECT * FROM sales_summary PIVOT (SUM(amount) FOR quarter IN ('Q1', 'Q2', 'Q3', 'Q4'));

# 7 COPY INTO (Stage Load) Ingestion

Bulk load stage Parquet files into table.

Syntax:

COPY INTO tbl FROM @stage/file.parquet FILE_FORMAT = (TYPE = 'PARQUET');

Working Example:

COPY INTO target_table FROM @my_s3_stage/data/ FILE_FORMAT = (TYPE = 'PARQUET');

# 8 CREATE DATABASE CLONE Cloning

Create zero-copy instant database metadata clone.

Syntax:

CREATE DATABASE clone_db CLONE src_db;

Working Example:

CREATE DATABASE prod_dev_sandbox CLONE production_db;

# 9 Time Travel AT / BEFORE Data Recovery

Query past table data state prior to update or drop.

Syntax:

SELECT * FROM tbl AT(OFFSET => -60*10);

Working Example:

SELECT * FROM orders AT(OFFSET => -60*5);

# 10 UNDROP TABLE Data Recovery

Restore deleted table with zero data loss.

Syntax:

UNDROP TABLE tbl_name;

Working Example:

UNDROP TABLE orders;

# 11 VARIANT (JSON Extraction) Semi-Structured

Parse nested JSON VARIANT field value.

Syntax:

SELECT raw_payload:user.id::INT FROM stage_tbl;

Working Example:

SELECT raw_payload:user.id::INT AS user_id FROM events_stage;

# 12 LATERAL FLATTEN Semi-Structured

Unpack JSON arrays into individual output rows.

Syntax:

SELECT id, f.value::STRING FROM tbl, LATERAL FLATTEN(input => col) f;

Working Example:

SELECT id, f.value::STRING AS tag FROM articles, LATERAL FLATTEN(input => metadata:tags) f;

# 13 CREATE WAREHOUSE Compute

Build virtual warehouse compute cluster.

Syntax:

CREATE WAREHOUSE wh_name WITH WAREHOUSE_SIZE = 'MEDIUM';

Working Example:

CREATE WAREHOUSE analytics_wh WITH WAREHOUSE_SIZE = 'MEDIUM' AUTO_SUSPEND = 300;

# 14 ALTER WAREHOUSE Compute

Dynamically resize virtual warehouse size.

Syntax:

ALTER WAREHOUSE wh_name SET WAREHOUSE_SIZE = 'LARGE';

Working Example:

ALTER WAREHOUSE analytics_wh SET WAREHOUSE_SIZE = 'LARGE';

# 15 RESULT_SCAN Caching

Query cached result set of previous statement.

Syntax:

SELECT * FROM TABLE(RESULT_SCAN(LAST_QUERY_ID()));

Working Example:

SELECT * FROM TABLE(RESULT_SCAN(LAST_QUERY_ID()));

# 16 CREATE SECRET Security

Securely store cloud authentication tokens.

Syntax:

CREATE SECRET secret_name TYPE = S3 ...;

Working Example:

CREATE SECRET s3_dev TYPE = S3 KEY_ID = 'AKIA...' SECRET = 'wJal...';

# 17 LIST @stage Storage

List files located in external cloud stage.

Syntax:

LIST @stage_name;

Working Example:

LIST @my_s3_stage;

# 18 SHOW TABLES Introspection

List tables in current database schema.

Syntax:

SHOW TABLES LIKE 'pattern%';

Working Example:

SHOW TABLES LIKE 'orders%';

# 19 EXPLAIN Performance

Analyze Snowflake micro-partition pruning plan.

Syntax:

EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM tbl WHERE col = val;

Working Example:

EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM sales WHERE sale_date >= '2026-01-01';

# 20 CREATE SNOWPIPE Data Pipeline

Define continuous automated S3 data ingestion pipe.

Syntax:

CREATE PIPE pipe_name AS COPY INTO tbl FROM @stage;

Working Example:

CREATE PIPE auto_pipe AS COPY INTO raw_events FROM @s3_events_stage;