Book Image

Data Modeling with Snowflake

By : Serge Gershkovich
5 (2)
Book Image

Data Modeling with Snowflake

5 (2)
By: Serge Gershkovich

Overview of this book

The Snowflake Data Cloud is one of the fastest-growing platforms for data warehousing and application workloads. Snowflake's scalable, cloud-native architecture and expansive set of features and objects enables you to deliver data solutions quicker than ever before. Yet, we must ensure that these solutions are developed using recommended design patterns and accompanied by documentation that’s easily accessible to everyone in the organization. This book will help you get familiar with simple and practical data modeling frameworks that accelerate agile design and evolve with the project from concept to code. These universal principles have helped guide database design for decades, and this book pairs them with unique Snowflake-native objects and examples like never before – giving you a two-for-one crash course in theory as well as direct application. By the end of this Snowflake book, you’ll have learned how to leverage Snowflake’s innovative features, such as time travel, zero-copy cloning, and change-data-capture, to create cost-effective, efficient designs through time-tested modeling principles that are easily digestible when coupled with real-world examples.
Table of Contents (24 chapters)
1
Part 1: Core Concepts in Data Modeling and Snowflake Architecture
8
Part 2: Applied Modeling from Idea to Deployment
14
Part 3: Solving Real-World Problems with Transformational Modeling

Naming conventions

Before creating the physical model, naming conventions that govern its design need to be established. Following consistent naming conventions improves understanding, reduces errors, facilitates collaboration, and generally makes it easier to work with your database. While there are many (often conflicting) theories and standards on the right convention to follow, the most important thing is to choose one that is easy to understand and to use it consistently throughout your database.

However, there are some general best practices to keep in mind when naming objects in Snowflake. After all, object names are like the API to your data model and should be regarded as a contract between the modeler and the data consumers. Once an object is created, downstream systems, users, and processes will reference it by name, forming dependencies and increasing the cost of future changes.

This section will cover some of the most crucial considerations in database naming. Instead...