In Snowflake, how do you write data using Snowpipe?

To write data using Snowpipe, you follow these steps:

1. Create an external stage that points to the cloud storage location where your files will land.
2. Define a pipe that contains a COPY INTO statement targeting the destination table. The pipe can include file format options and a WHERE clause to filter files.
3. Set up a notification integration (S3 Event Notifications, Azure Event Grid, or GCS Pub/Sub) so that Snowflake receives an event whenever a new file is uploaded.
4. Upload the file to the external stage. The notification triggers Snowpipe, which automatically executes the COPY INTO and loads the data.
5. Optionally, you can trigger the pipe manually via the Snowpipe REST API if you prefer scheduled or on‑demand loads.

The process is event‑driven, so Snowpipe incurs no compute cost until a file arrives, and the load is performed in micro‑batches, keeping latency low. Complexity is linear in the size of the file, and the overhead is minimal compared to manual COPY commands.