INFER_SCHEMA

Learn how to use the INFER_SCHEMA table function in PlaidCloud Lakehouse. Automatically detects the file metadata schema and retrieves the column definitions.

Automatically detects the file metadata schema and retrieves the column definitions.

SQL Syntax

INFER_SCHEMA(
  LOCATION => '{ internalStage | externalStage }'
  [ PATTERN => '<regex_pattern>']
)

Where:

internalStage

internalStage ::= @<internal_stage_name>[/<path>]

externalStage

externalStage ::= @<external_stage_name>[/<path>]

PATTERN = 'regex_pattern'

A PCRE2-based regular expression pattern string, enclosed in single quotes, specifying the file names to match. Click here to see an example. For PCRE2 syntax, see http://www.pcre.org/current/doc/html/pcre2syntax.html.

SQL Examples

Generate a parquet file in a stage:

CREATE STAGE infer_parquet FILE_FORMAT = (TYPE = PARQUET);
COPY INTO @infer_parquet FROM (SELECT * FROM numbers(10)) FILE_FORMAT = (TYPE = PARQUET);

LIST @infer_parquet;
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬──────┬────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────┬─────────┐
│ name                                                  │ size │ md5                                │ last_modified                 │ creator │
├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────┼────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┼─────────┤
│ data_e0fd9cba-f45c-4c43-aa07-d6d87d134378_0_0.parquet │  258 │ "7DCC9FFE04EA1F6882AED2CF9640D3D4" │ 2023-02-09 05:21:52.000 +0000 │ NULL    │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴──────┴────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────┴─────────┘

infer_schema

SELECT * FROM INFER_SCHEMA(location => '@infer_parquet/data_e0fd9cba-f45c-4c43-aa07-d6d87d134378_0_0.parquet');
┌─────────────┬─────────────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
│ column_name │ type            │ nullable │ order_id │
├─────────────┼─────────────────┼──────────┼──────────┤
│ number      │ BIGINT UNSIGNED │        0 │        0 │
└─────────────┴─────────────────┴──────────┴──────────┘

infer_schema with Pattern Matching

SELECT * FROM infer_schema(location => '@infer_parquet/', pattern => '.*parquet');
┌─────────────┬─────────────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
│ column_name │ type            │ nullable │ order_id │
├─────────────┼─────────────────┼──────────┼──────────┤
│ number      │ BIGINT UNSIGNED │        0 │        0 │
└─────────────┴─────────────────┴──────────┴──────────┘

Create a Table From Parquet File

The infer_schema can only display the schema of a parquet file and cannot create a table from it.

To create a table from a parquet file:

CREATE TABLE mytable AS SELECT * FROM @infer_parquet/ (pattern=>'.*parquet') LIMIT 0;

DESC mytable;
┌────────┬─────────────────┬──────┬─────────┬───────┐
│ Field  │ Type            │ Null │ Default │ Extra │
├────────┼─────────────────┼──────┼─────────┼───────┤
│ number │ BIGINT UNSIGNED │ NO   │ 0       │       │
└────────┴─────────────────┴──────┴─────────┴───────┘