Understanding external tables
Similar to what we learned about OPENROWSET, we have a different option to read files from Storage using external tables. The big difference to an OPENROWSET bulk function is that with Synapse Analytics, we can use external tables to read remote file content to a dedicated SQL pool or a serverless SQL pool.
We have two types of external tables – Hadoop and native external tables – and the focus for this chapter will be on native external tables. We can read and export data in various formats, such as CSV, Parquet, and ORC, using native external tables, which is very similar to what we learned about earlier in the chapter with the OPENROWSET function.
Note
Native external tables are available in a serverless SQL pool, and the option for this in a dedicated SQL pool is in public preview at the time of writing.
You can create an external table using the following three steps:
- Establish a connection to the source (along with...
