Snowflake Protocol Compatibility

Detailed feature compatibility matrix for Snowflake protocol support in HeliosDB.

Feature Coverage: 90%+

Core Features

Feature	Status	Notes
SQL API	Supported	Full statement execution
Authentication	Supported	Key pair, password
Sessions	Supported	Session management
Contexts	Supported	Warehouse/DB/Schema
Query History	Supported	Full history access

Time Travel

Feature	Status	Notes
AT (TIMESTAMP)	Supported	Query at specific time
AT (OFFSET)	Supported	Query at relative offset
AT (STATEMENT)	Supported	Query at statement ID
BEFORE (STATEMENT)	Supported	Query before statement
CHANGES()	Supported	Track changes
UNDROP	Supported	Restore dropped objects

-- Time travel examples
SELECT * FROM orders AT(TIMESTAMP => '2024-01-01 00:00:00');
SELECT * FROM orders AT(OFFSET => -3600);  -- 1 hour ago
SELECT * FROM orders BEFORE(STATEMENT => 'statement-id');

VARIANT Data Type

Feature	Status	Notes
VARIANT storage	Supported	Semi-structured data
Path notation	Supported	`data:field:subfield`
Array indexing	Supported	`data:items[0]`
Type casting	Supported	`::STRING`, `::NUMBER`
PARSE_JSON	Supported	JSON to VARIANT
TO_VARIANT	Supported	Convert to VARIANT
GET/GET_PATH	Supported	Field access

-- VARIANT examples
SELECT data:name::STRING as name FROM json_table;
SELECT data:items[0].price::NUMBER as price FROM orders;

FLATTEN Function

Feature	Status	Notes
Basic FLATTEN	Supported	Unnest arrays
LATERAL FLATTEN	Supported	Correlated unnesting
Recursive	Supported	Nested structures
OUTER	Supported	Preserve NULLs
PATH	Supported	Specify path
MODE	Supported	ARRAY, OBJECT, BOTH

-- FLATTEN examples
SELECT f.value:id, f.value:name
FROM orders, LATERAL FLATTEN(input => items) f;

SELECT f.value
FROM data, LATERAL FLATTEN(input => nested:array, recursive => true) f;

Virtual Warehouses

Feature	Status	Notes
CREATE WAREHOUSE	Supported	All sizes
ALTER WAREHOUSE	Supported	Resize, suspend/resume
DROP WAREHOUSE	Supported	-
AUTO_SUSPEND	Supported	Configurable timeout
AUTO_RESUME	Supported	On query submission
MULTI_CLUSTER	Supported	Scaling policies
USE WAREHOUSE	Supported	Context switching

-- Warehouse management
CREATE WAREHOUSE analytics_wh WITH
  WAREHOUSE_SIZE = 'LARGE'
  AUTO_SUSPEND = 300
  AUTO_RESUME = TRUE
  MIN_CLUSTER_COUNT = 1
  MAX_CLUSTER_COUNT = 4;

ALTER WAREHOUSE analytics_wh SET WAREHOUSE_SIZE = 'XLARGE';
ALTER WAREHOUSE analytics_wh SUSPEND;
ALTER WAREHOUSE analytics_wh RESUME;

COPY INTO

Feature	Status	Notes
From stage	Supported	Internal/external
File formats	Supported	CSV, JSON, Parquet, Avro, ORC
Cloud storage	Supported	S3, Azure, GCS
Pattern matching	Supported	File patterns
ON_ERROR	Supported	Error handling
Compression	Supported	GZIP, Snappy, ZSTD

-- COPY INTO examples
COPY INTO my_table
FROM @my_stage/data/
FILE_FORMAT = (TYPE = 'JSON')
ON_ERROR = 'CONTINUE';

COPY INTO my_table
FROM 's3://bucket/path/'
CREDENTIALS = (AWS_KEY_ID = '...' AWS_SECRET_KEY = '...')
FILE_FORMAT = (TYPE = 'PARQUET');

SQL Functions

Semi-Structured Functions

Function	Status	Description
PARSE_JSON	Supported	Parse JSON string
TO_JSON	Supported	Convert to JSON
TO_VARIANT	Supported	Convert to VARIANT
TRY_PARSE_JSON	Supported	Safe JSON parse
OBJECT_CONSTRUCT	Supported	Build objects
ARRAY_CONSTRUCT	Supported	Build arrays
ARRAY_AGG	Supported	Aggregate to array
OBJECT_AGG	Supported	Aggregate to object
GET	Supported	Get by key
GET_PATH	Supported	Get by path

String Functions

Function	Status	Description
CONTAINS	Supported	String contains
STARTSWITH	Supported	String starts with
ENDSWITH	Supported	String ends with
SPLIT	Supported	Split string
SPLIT_PART	Supported	Get split part
LISTAGG	Supported	Concatenate with delimiter

Utility Functions

Function	Status	Description
GENERATE_UUID	Supported	Generate UUID
RANDOM	Supported	Random number
TRY_CAST	Supported	Safe type cast
COALESCE	Supported	First non-null
NVL/NVL2	Supported	Null handling
IFF	Supported	Conditional

Data Types

Type	Status	Notes
NUMBER	Supported	Numeric
FLOAT	Supported	Floating point
VARCHAR	Supported	Variable string
BINARY	Supported	Binary data
BOOLEAN	Supported	Boolean
DATE	Supported	Date only
TIME	Supported	Time only
TIMESTAMP_NTZ	Supported	No timezone
TIMESTAMP_LTZ	Supported	Local timezone
TIMESTAMP_TZ	Supported	With timezone
VARIANT	Supported	Semi-structured
OBJECT	Supported	JSON object
ARRAY	Supported	JSON array
GEOGRAPHY	Supported	Geospatial

Session Parameters

Parameter	Status	Description
QUERY_TAG	Supported	Tag queries
TIMEZONE	Supported	Session timezone
DATE_OUTPUT_FORMAT	Supported	Date format
TIMESTAMP_OUTPUT_FORMAT	Supported	Timestamp format
BINARY_OUTPUT_FORMAT	Supported	Binary format

Known Limitations

Streams: Not yet supported
Tasks: Not yet supported
Pipes: Not yet supported
Dynamic Tables: Not yet supported
Snowpark: Not supported (Python UDFs)

Migration Notes

When migrating from Snowflake to HeliosDB:

Connection: Update connection string
Warehouses: Virtual warehouses work similarly
SQL: Most Snowflake SQL is compatible
VARIANT: Full support for semi-structured data
Time Travel: Same syntax supported

Last Updated: January 2026