Snowflake SnowPro Certification Practice Test

Which command is used to explode compounded VARIANT values into multiple rows?

1. EXPLODE

2. FLATTEN

3. SPLIT

4. UNNEST

The correct answer is: FLATTEN

The use of the FLATTEN command is essential when dealing with compounded VARIANT values in Snowflake. This command effectively transforms nested structures, such as arrays or objects within a VARIANT column, into a set of individual rows, allowing each element to be correctly accessed and analyzed. When you apply the FLATTEN function, it generates a new row for each element within the nested structure, maintaining contextual information through the addition of metadata columns. This is particularly useful when working with semi-structured data formats like JSON, where a VARIANT might contain multiple nested arrays or objects. In contrast, while terms like EXPLODE, SPLIT, and UNNEST might be related to dealing with arrays in other database systems or programming contexts, they do not specifically apply within the Snowflake environment. Therefore, identifying FLATTEN as the correct command demonstrates an understanding of Snowflake's specific functionalities for transforming and flattening stored data types, making it the optimal choice for this scenario.