This article provides a brief overview of the new features, enhancements, and other important changes introduced in this scheduled release of Snowflake. More information about these changes is provided in the Snowflake documentation. If you have additional questions, please contact Snowflake Support.
Back to: Announcements
Update (01-Dec-2021): All accounts in all regions were moved back to complete the 5.42 release.
Update (19-Nov-2021): All accounts in all regions were rolled back to the 5.41 release.
Important: The changes described in this article may take 24 hours or more (after the completion of the release) to become available.
In addition, the release may include fixes or changes that require the web interface to be refreshed. As a general practice, we recommend refreshing the web interface after each Snowflake release.
SQL Updates
ALTER ACCOUNT: Add Support for Tags
With this release, Snowflake adds support to set a tag on your Snowflake account with an ALTER ACCOUNT statement.
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Syntax
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Description
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ALTER ACCOUNT SET TAG <tag_key> = '<tag_value>' [ , <tag_key> = '<tag_value>' ... ]
ALTER ACCOUNT UNSET TAG <tag_key> [ , <tag_key> = ... ]
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Specifies the tag name (i.e. the key) and the tag value.
The tag value is always a string, and the maximum number of characters for the tag value is 256. The maximum number of tags that can be set on an object is 20.
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Note that Snowflake does not support creating a Snowflake account with a tag when executing the CREATE ACCOUNT statement.
New Function: POLICY_CONTEXT
The following function is now available with this release:
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Category
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Function
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Description
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Context
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POLICY_CONTEXT
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Simulates the query result for table or view columns protected by a masking policy, a table or view protected by a row access policy, or both if the table or view is protected by both types of policies.
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Extensibility Updates
Request and Response Translators in External Functions --- Preview
With this release, we are pleased to announce that it is now easier to change the format of data sent to, and received from, remote services used by external functions.
This feature allows you to conveniently:
- Convert data from Snowflake's format to the remote service's native input format (request translator).
- Convert data from the remote service's native output format to Snowflake's format (response translator).
For more information, see Using Request and Response Translators with Data for a Remote Service.
Data Governance Updates
Masking Policies: Support Added for the GEOGRAPHY Data Type
With this release, Snowflake adds support for the GEOGRAPHY data type in a Column-level Security masking policy.
For a representative example, see CREATE MASKING POLICY.
Object Tagging: Support Added for Account Objects
With this release, Snowflake adds support to set a tag on your current Snowflake account with an ALTER ACCOUNT statement.
For details on syntax and usage, see ALTER ACCOUNT: Add Support for Tags (in this article).
Masking Policy and Row Access Policy Simulation
With this release, Snowflake adds support to simulate the query result on a table or view protected by a masking policy, row access policy, or both types of policies by calling the new context function POLICY_CONTEXT.
For more information, see New Function: POLICY_CONTEXT (in this article).
