What is the primary purpose of a directory table in Snowflake?
What is the primary purpose of a directory table in Snowflake?
A directory table in Snowflake is specifically designed to store file-level metadata about the data files in a stage. This includes information such as file size, last modified timestamp, and file URL. It does not store actual data, manage user privileges, or expire file URLs automatically.
A directory table is an implicit object layered on a stage that stores file-level metadata about the data files in the stage, similar conceptually to an external table You can query a directory table to retrieve a list of all the files on a stage. The query output contains information about each file, including the size, last modified timestamp, and the file URL Directory tables store data file metadata https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/data-load-dirtablesThe key points are: