Snowflake SnowPro Certification Practice Test

In an INSERT function, can a WHERE clause be used when inserting from a SELECT against a staged file?

1. True

2. False

3. Only in batch operations

4. Only with external tables

The correct answer is: False

The answer is that a WHERE clause cannot be used in an INSERT statement when inserting data from a SELECT statement against a staged file. In Snowflake, when inserting data from a staged file using the INSERT command, you retrieve all the data as it is in the staged file. This means that there are no filtering capabilities through a WHERE clause, as the staged file is treated like a raw data source. The INSERT command is primarily designed to add rows to a target table based on either direct values or the result set of a SELECT query. However, when the source of the data is a staged file, the SQL syntax does not allow for the application of a WHERE clause to filter records during the importation process. This limitation emphasizes the nature of how data is loaded from staged files, requiring that all data from the file be inserted into the destination table without conditional filtering. Alternative choices involve contexts that do not apply here. Only using a WHERE clause in batch operations or with external tables does not align with how the INSERT command works with staged files, which remain fixed in structure until the full load is complete.