External stage:
- Storage location outside Snowflake (e.g., AWS S3, Azure Blob, Google Cloud Storage) linked to Snowflake for accessing external files.
Internal stage:
- Storage managed by Snowflake within its system, used for temporary or permanent file storage directly inside Snowflake.
- Primarily used for staging files locally within Snowflake’s managed storage —like uploading files from your local machine to Snowflake before loading them into tables.
- Internal stage parameters specifies the type of encryption supported for all files stored on the stage. Type:
SNOWFLAKE_FULL: Client-side and server-side encryptionSNOWFLAKE_SSE: Server-side encryption only.
Snowflake internal stages come in three types with different uses:
- User Stage (referenced using
@~)
- Dedicated to each user automatically.
- Temporary storage for files a user uploads or downloads.
- Use case: Quick, personal file staging for ad-hoc loads or unloads.
- Table Stage (referenced using
@%)
- Automatically created for each table.
- Tied to a specific table, used mainly for loading data directly into that table.
- Use case: Temporary storage during bulk data loading operations for a table.
- Named Internal Stage (referenced using
@)
- Explicitly created by users.
- Can be shared and reused across users and sessions.
- Use case: Centralized staging area for common files, reusable by multiple users or processes.
Use DESC STAGE to see the stage setting
File functions enable you to access files staged in cloud storage.