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Snowflake | Data engineering | Data prep

Load data into Snowflake using a SQL statement

Before I could demo row level security in Tableau, I had to get the sample data into Snowflake from scratch using nothing but a SQL statement.

Tim Ngwena •6 December 2021 •1 min read •6 min watch •8.1K

Watch on YouTube

Snowflake database names can't contain spaces, so use underscores when creating one through the interface
If you don't own the database you need to set up the relevant role privileges before creating tables and inserting data
In the Snowflake worksheets you must specify the target database and schema in the top-right context before running SQL, or it will error
Highlighting just the SQL you want and clicking run is a safer habit than executing an entire script at once
You can preview loaded rows either via the preview data button or by right-clicking the table in the object explorer

0:00Hey it's Tim here. In Tableau 21.4 there's

0:02a feature that I wanted to demo which shows

0:04row level

0:04security. Now in order to demo that I

0:07needed to do two things set up a virtual

0:09connection to a

0:09database and then show off the row level

0:12permissions. But in order to do that I

0:14needed to load the data

0:15into Snowflake. Now Tableau actually

0:17created some sample data for this demo. So

0:20you can see it here

0:21I've actually got it in my Dropbox folder

0:23you can see where it's coming from here but

0:24essentially

0:25it's a SQL statement that creates a table

0:27then loads the data then creates another

0:30table then

0:30loads that data and you can see there's a

0:32lot of data here it's all been sort of bun

0:34ged into the

0:35SQL statement and I think it creates three

0:37or four data sets. If I just keep going

0:39down here

0:40we'll pretty much see another one we just

0:42saw another one there just sort of flash by

0:44if we go

0:44back up we also have here the orders table

0:46then we have all the orders and so on and

0:48so forth. So

0:50essentially what I'm going to show you in

0:52this video is how to load sample data into

0:54Snowflake.

0:54I'm going to need to do everything from

0:56scratch and so that's what I'm going to

0:57show you okay

0:58let's get stuck in. So here we are we're in

1:00Snowflake now I'm just using the sort of

1:02online

1:03interface here I'm not using any sort of

1:04database tools if you use one of those that

1:06's totally fine

1:07everything is pretty much going to work the

1:09same I'm just doing this to keep things

1:11nice and simple.

1:12So what I first need to do is to create a

1:14demo database I don't actually have one set

1:16up I've

1:16got mostly utility databases here some

1:20sample databases and also my database for

1:23my youtube

1:24channel so that's called TNMD5-TRAN because

1:275-TRAN pumps some data into that. So first

1:29we'll need to

1:30go to the databases section and create a

1:32database and we can call this Tableau demo

1:36database. Now

1:38for those of you who are watching this and

1:40know how to create a database here you'll

1:42know there's

1:42going to be an issue here when I click

1:43finish and that is it doesn't like the

1:45spaces between

1:46the names so we'll go ahead and do an

1:48underscore just to make sure that meets the

1:50condition that's

1:51required we can call this like just put a

1:54comment here so a demo db that's going to

1:57be all I need

1:58go ahead and hit create and boom we've got

2:00it there. Now what we would typically do

2:02now is set

2:02up privileges for a particular role or

2:05whatever but I'm the only one on this

2:06database so I have

2:08access to everything so if you don't have

2:09access to everything you need to pay

2:11attention to this

2:11make sure you set up the relevant

2:13privileges so that you can then switch into

2:15the role that you're

2:15going to be using for analytics or maybe

2:17your users are going to be using and make

2:19sure they can do

2:20this themselves but other than that you can

2:22just pretty much go ahead and get stuck in.

2:25Now once

2:25I've done this I'm actually going to do the

2:27rest using the worksheets capability so I

2:28'll go over

2:29to the worksheets capability and if I click

2:31on this little refresh button let me just

2:34click on

2:34this arrow here you'll see that it will

2:36refresh the window and I'll actually see my

2:38new table

2:38that I've created there there it is Tableau

2:41demo database and if we open this up and go

2:43into public

2:43you can see we have no tables or views in

2:45this schema so we need to create some views

2:48so let's

2:48go ahead and go to the very top of the SQL

2:50statement let me just go right to the top

2:53this

2:53is going to take me a little while let's

2:55just go all the way up here and you've got

2:56the first sort

2:57of SQL statement we can run now I'm just

3:00going to copy this section of it copy it

3:02from where I'm in

3:03VS code go to this particular page and

3:06paste it in and now we have that SQL so

3:08what the SQL is going

3:10to do is essentially just create the

3:11framework where we're going to load the

3:13data into so it

3:14just creates a table but it doesn't load

3:16any real data into it so what I can do is I

3:18can just run

3:19this whole entire SQL statement but I've

3:21gotten into the habit of highlighting what

3:23I want to run

3:24and then selecting run okay and so if I go

3:26to do this you'll hit run and it will

3:28complain

3:28essentially it's complaining because I

3:30haven't actually specified these parameters

3:32over here

3:33on the top right hand side so let's go

3:35ahead and select the relevant database let

3:37's go ahead here

3:38and select Tableau demo database it's now

3:41public everything is pretty much good to go

3:43and now if

3:43I go and do the same thing and I hit run

3:45you'll see that this actually works and it

3:48completes

3:48successfully it took us 165 milliseconds

3:51essentially and I'm using the small

3:54warehouse

3:54here I'm not using anything sort of

3:56powerful this is just sort of a standard

3:58capability I can double

3:59check that that table now exists by again

4:01hitting the little view over here refresh

4:03it now and you

4:04can see my employees table does exist and

4:07it has zero rows I can see that just there

4:09on the

4:09snowflake interface so now we're pretty

4:11much good to go and we're ready to load

4:12some real data let's

4:14go back to vs code and we can go to this

4:16little sort of area now they've put some

4:19sort of stuff

4:20in here so it says lock tables employees

4:22right we don't actually need that for this

4:24particular

4:24use case or for this particular setup that

4:27I'm running all I need is this SQL here

4:29that actually

4:29does the job of inserting the data so let's

4:31let's go ahead and slowly scroll down

4:33before we get to

4:34the next data set here on line 35 I'm going

4:36to copy that and when I bring it back in

4:38here I'm

4:39just going to copy it just a little bit

4:41below let's just go a few lines and paste

4:42it in here

4:43and you can see insert into employees and

4:46it's this really wide data set here and

4:48basically

4:49every single bit of information has just

4:51been pasted into that little area it's like

4:53an array

4:53in in web development or something like

4:55that but we're pretty much good to go now

4:57of course I need

4:57to highlight this and now that I've

4:59highlighted it I need to run it's kept all

5:01my variables from

5:02before so if I needed to change this for

5:04whatever reason maybe some people have the

5:06ability to create

5:07data and then some people have the ability

5:09to put data in and then some people have

5:11the ability to

5:12read data if you needed to change those you

5:14'd need to sort of go up here and change

5:16those permissions

5:17but nonetheless we're going to just select

5:19this line here line 25 and hit run and you

5:22'll get the

5:22SQL sort of display to you ask you again

5:24are you sure you want to do this you can

5:26actually copy the

5:27SQL in case you're not sure hit run and

5:29that will complete 427 milliseconds so that

5:32works pretty

5:33really well and what we can do we can again

5:35go up here to refresh then we should check

5:37this table

5:38and we should see some rows so let's go

5:40ahead and do that let's hit refresh this

5:43will refresh we'll

5:44hit the employees and there we have nine

5:46rows if you want to see a preview of this

5:48data there's a

5:48couple ways to do this there's this button

5:50right here where you can hit so let's go

5:52ahead and do

5:53that let's hit preview data and you'll see

5:54our preview loads here at the bottom so

5:56that's pretty

5:57much to the data that we just loaded and

5:59then if you want to do another way if you

6:00actually go to

6:01right here and right click you can also

6:03select the preview data option there and

6:04you're pretty much

6:05good to go so that's how i'm going to load

6:07the sample data for this specific demo in

6:10tabla i just

6:10wanted to show sort of the behind the

6:12scenes uh set up for that and hopefully you

6:14find it useful

6:15for learning how to load sample data that

6:18maybe you've got as a sql statement uh into

6:20your own

6:21sample database so you can do some tests

6:23and test out new features thanks for

6:24watching i'll catch

Rollup

Tim shows how to take a raw SQL script (table creation plus data inserts) and load it into Snowflake from scratch using nothing but the web interface, so you can stand up sample data for testing or demos.

He needed sample data in Snowflake to demo Tableau's row level security feature, starting with only a bundled SQL statement that creates several tables and inserts data into them.

The Breakdown

Why load data this way 0:00

When you're given a SQL script that creates and populates tables, you can load it straight into Snowflake yourself rather than relying on a pre-built database, which is useful whenever you need sample data for testing or demoing a feature.
Create a dedicated database first 0:59

Before running any SQL you need a database to load into; create one through the Snowflake interface, but note database names can't contain spaces, so use underscores instead.
Set up privileges if it's not your database 2:00

If you're not the sole owner of the database, you must set up the relevant role privileges first so you or your users can create tables and insert data — skip this only if you already have full access, as Tim does here.
Point your worksheet at the right database and schema 2:41

In the Snowflake worksheet you must explicitly select the target database and schema in the top-right context before running any SQL, otherwise the statement will error even if the SQL itself is correct.
Run the table-creation SQL first 3:00

Paste in and run the portion of the script that creates the table structure — this step must come before inserting data, since it just builds the empty framework with no rows yet.
Highlight and run SQL in chunks, not the whole script 4:21

Rather than executing an entire script at once, Tim's habit is to highlight just the section he wants (e.g. the insert statement for one table) and run that, which is a safer way to work through a large SQL file piece by piece.
Insert the data 4:41

Once the table exists, highlight and run the corresponding insert statement to load the actual rows; you can repeat this pattern for each table defined in the script.
Verify the load 5:41

Confirm data landed correctly either by refreshing the object explorer and using the preview data button, or by right-clicking the table and choosing preview data — both give you a quick look at the loaded rows.

Worth Knowing

Snowflake database names can't contain spaces — use underscores when creating one through the interface
If you don't own the database, set up role privileges before you can create tables or insert data
You must select the database and schema in the worksheet's top-right context before running SQL, or it errors out

Use It When

Reach for this whenever you've got a raw SQL script (sample data, a vendor demo file, a colleague's export) and need to stand it up in a fresh Snowflake database for testing, demos, or trying out a new feature.

How this Rollup was made provenance & method

A Rollup is drafted by AI from the video's transcript, then reviewed and edited by Tim. Everything used to produce this one is listed below — the model, the exact prompt, and the source video — so the process is transparent and reproducible.

Transcription: On-device — NVIDIA Parakeet v3 for recent videos, OpenAI Whisper large-v3 for earlier ones. The transcript never leaves the machine or gets published.
Drafting: Claude Sonnet 5 in the cloud, from that transcript.
Prompt: The exact Rollup prompt (v2) — the full system prompt, unedited.
Source video: Watch on YouTube
Drafted: 5 July 2026 at 09:38
Reviewed & edited: 5 July 2026 at 09:41 · by Tim Ngwena

Model + prompt + video is everything you'd need to recreate a Rollup like this yourself. The one thing we don't share is the transcript.

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