Aug 15, 2021
Snowflake: How Snowsight Is Better Than The Classic UI
Snowflake Snowsight offers an improved user experience in terms of writing and executing SQL queries. I’m going to share with you some of the things I like about Snowsight which might persuade you to move into it and leave the Classic UI behind.
Going into Snowsight
To get into Snowsight from the Classic UI, you just have to click the “Preview App” button on the menu bar beside other options like History, Worksheet, etc..
This will take you to Snowsight logon screen where it’s going to open a new Snowflake session upon logon.
File Directory-like Worksheets
Upon successful logon, you will be taken into the Worksheets tab. In Snowsight, your Worksheets are listed and organised as files as oppose to tabs in the Classic UI.
Snowsight
Classic UI
Code Assist
Writing queries in Snowsight is so much easier. As soon as you type something, a pop-up card will appear which will show matching codes based on what you’ve typed.
This means that in Snowsight, you don’t have to type everything. Just choose one of the options from the pop-up and hit Tab to autocomplete it.
This is also applicable even for Object Names. Notice that it also shows the row count of the matching table names.
Highlighted Error
In Snowsight, you can instantly find where the error is in your query, as it will not only give you the line number, but it will also highlight the code that is causing the error in your query.
This is extremely helpful especially when troubleshooting hundred-liner and/or unformatted queries.
Format Query
Speaking of unformatted queries, you now don’t have to use an external tool to perform a very simple job. Snowsight can format queries simply by clicking on your Worksheet Name and then “Format query”.
Below is the result of formatting the above one-liner query.
Filter Result set
Snowsight allows filtering of query results by using the Search Bar on top of the results pane.
Do not confuse this with the WHERE clause, the search is not tied to any column of the result, the search will be done for the entire row.
Result filtering is done automatically and instantly as you type. It will also provide some statistics based on the result of the query and your search. As in the example above, it shows that 195 out of 1,500 result rows are matched with my search.
Data Visualization
Since Snowsight is designed to support data analyst activities, it automatically generates charts from the query result which will enable us to instantly visualise our data. To view it, just click on the “Chart” button.
The chart display can be customised according to your preference. You can choose a different chart type, add more dimension, change the appearance, etc. all can be done on the right hand pane of the chart.
Share your Worksheet
Snowflake allows you to share your entire worksheet with the queries including the results if there’s any.
By clicking the “Share” button on the top right hand of the worksheet, a pop-up window will appear where you can add users whom you want to give access to your worksheet. These users must be an existing user within the same Snowflake Account. You can also set the access privilege of the users to share your worksheet with.
Wrap up
This blog does not do justice for Snowsight as we’ve covered only the improvements in Worksheets. There are other incredible features here which I’m sure you will find useful too, like the Dashboards and the Role Hierarchy Viewer. I will leave them for you to explore on your own.
Just like every new thing, it will take some time to adjust to the new UI but it is definitely something worth considering as it surely provides a better user experience than the Classic UI.
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