What is Snowflake?

Snowflake is a cloud-based data platform and a data service that provides a comprehensive and single platform capable of eliminating data silos and simplifying data architectures. This tool offers optimized storage and elastic multi-cluster compute, ensuring that users can access data at near-infinite scale and experience leading performance for diverse users, data volumes, and workloads. Snowflake's platform is designed to allow users to get more value from their data, which is made possible by automating tasks to eliminate the need for complex and costly resource investments.

As a data warehousing tool used by over 8,900 global customers, Snowflake supports a variety of use cases including the development of pipelines, AI/ML models, and applications with the aid of Snowpark, which securely runs non-SQL code in languages like Python, Java, and Scala. The platform not only allows users to bring more workloads and use cases directly to their data but also facilitates the deployment of large language models (LLMs) and machine learning models. Additionally, Snowflake's governance solution, Snowflake Horizon, manages security, compliance, privacy, interoperability, and access to all data and apps, ensuring a robust and secure data management environment.

Furthermore, Snowflake's marketplace and partner network offer over 2,300 listings for users to discover and access data and apps, while enabling them to collaborate and integrate services, tools, and applications seamlessly. The platform's ability to process an average of 3.9 billion queries per day showcases its scalability and performance. Snowflake also hosts events that cover various topics including data strategy, AI, ML, and more, and offers a free trial for potential users to experience its capabilities firsthand.

Snowflake Plugins for Excel

Snowflake Excel Add-In

This Excel add-in is specifically designed for Windows users to facilitate direct interaction with the Snowflake database. It enables users to read and write data efficiently. However, it should be approached with caution to ensure data integrity. The add-in is compatible with VBA scripts and vlookups, enhancing its utility in various Excel-based tasks such as financial budgeting write-backs, maintaining look-up tables, and conducting pricing analysis.

Snowflake Excel Integration via ODBC

Users can connect Excel to Snowflake using an ODBC driver, which needs to be properly installed and configured. This integration allows for querying and visualizing Snowflake data within Excel. It is particularly useful for handling small datasets and performing quick ad hoc analysis. Power Query in Excel further extends this capability by enabling data transformation and loading from diverse sources.

Excelerator Add-In

Excelerator stands out as a robust Excel add-in for Windows that reads and writes data to and from Snowflake, with the prerequisite of having the ODBC driver installed. This tool is designed to handle substantial volumes of data, supporting the upload of over 1 million rows (77MB). Its uses extend to financial budgeting write-backs, look-up table maintenance, pricing analysis, among other tasks, making it a versatile tool for Excel users working with Snowflake.

Common Use Cases

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  Building custom dashboards and reports with live Snowflake data in Excel
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  Performing mass imports, exports, updates, and data cleansing within Excel
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  Creating charts and pivot tables in Excel using data from Snowflake
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  Conducting financial budgeting write-back and maintaining look-up tables through Excel
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  Modifying and deleting Snowflake records directly within Excel

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I connect to Snowflake data using the plugin for Excel?

You can connect to Snowflake data by installing the Excel Add-in, then using the Excelerator tab on the Home tab of the Ribbon in Excel to log in with your Snowflake credentials, which can be either login/password or SSO.

Can I read and write data to Snowflake directly from Excel?

Yes, the plugin provides bi-directional access, allowing you to execute queries and pull data into Excel, manipulate it, and write back to Snowflake with options for updating existing rows, appending new rows, or replacing all data in a table.

Is additional software needed to use the Snowflake plugin for Excel?

Apart from the Snowflake ODBC driver that is required for the plugin to function, no additional software is needed beyond the Add-In itself.

Does the plugin support creating new tables or modifying table structure in Snowflake?

Yes, the plugin can automatically add new columns to a table if they exist in the spreadsheet but not in the table and provides advanced options like creating a new table or recreating an existing one with the data from Excel.

How does the plugin integrate with Excel and what are its benefits?

The plugin integrates with the Excel toolbar and ribbon, providing direct access to live Snowflake data for operations like data analysis, cleansing, de-duplication, and building custom dashboards and reports.