Difference between Stored Procedures and UDFs — Snowflake

Alexander
2 min readOct 19, 2021

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The Snowflake stored procedure vs user defined function is an interesting comparison. Both are used to achieve certain functionalities that are not possible using built-in functions available in Snowflake.

Following are some important comparison between Snowflake stored procedures and user defined functions (UDFs).

Calling Methods:

Return Type:

Database Access:

How to choose Snowflake Stored Procedure or a UDFs ?

As mentioned earlier, you can use either SP or UDF to perform certain tasks as per your requirements.

You can create a Snowflake stored procedure:

  • If you are migrating an existing stored procedure from another application or system.
  • If you are performing any database operations such as SELECT, DELETE, CREATE, DELETE

You can create a Snowflake user defined Functions:

  • If you are migrating an existing UDF from another application or system.
  • In case if you need to use a function as a part of the SQL statement or expression.
  • If your output needs to include a value for every input row or every group.

Please visit below link to know more about Stored procedure and UDFs

Stored Procedure — How to write stored procedure in snowflake? | by Alexander | Aug, 2021 | Medium

UDFs — User Defined Functions (UDFs) in Snowflake — Part 1 | by Alexander | Sep, 2021 | Medium

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