Grant Usage vs Grant Select Snowflake: Everything you need to know

Snowflake is a cloud-based data warehousing platform that offers a wide range of features to help organizations manage their data efficiently. One of the most critical aspects of managing data is controlling access to it. Snowflake offers a rich suite of security and access control options, including the Grant Usage and Grant Select commands.In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at the differences between Grant Usage and Grant Select in Snowflake, and how you can use them to better manage your data.

Grant Usage in Snowflake

Grant Usage is a Snowflake command that grants users the permission to interact with a database object, such as a table or schema. When you grant Usage to a user or role, they can view the object’s metadata and obtain information about it. They can see column names, data types, and other information about the object, but they cannot query the object’s data or select any data from it.Granting usage on an object is particularly useful for granting permissions to users that require access to the object but do not need to query or analyze its data. For example, you might grant usage to a business analyst who needs to understand the metadata of a table but does not require access to the table’s data.To grant usage on an object in Snowflake, you need to have the ‘Grant Usage’ privilege on the object. You can use the following SQL command to grant usage:GRANT USAGE ON [object] TO [user/role];For example, the following SQL command grants usage on a table called ‘my_table’ to a role called ‘analysts’:GRANT USAGE ON TABLE my_table TO ROLE analysts;

Grant Select in Snowflake

Grant Select is another Snowflake command that allows users to query and select data from a table. When you grant Select to a user or role, they can execute a SQL query on the object and return the data. They can’t modify or delete data from the object, but they can view it.Grant Select is useful for granting read-only access to a table or view. For example, you might grant select to a reporting or analytics team that needs to gather insights from a piece of data.To grant select on a table on Snowflake, you need to have the ‘Grant Select’ permission on the object. You can use the following SQL command to grant select:GRANT SELECT ON [object] TO [user/role];For example, the following SQL command grants select permission on a table called ‘my_table’ to a role called ‘analysts’:GRANT SELECT ON TABLE my_table TO ROLE analysts;

Differences between Grant Usage and Grant Select

The key difference between Grant Usage and Grant Select is the level of access that they grant to users.While Grant Select permits users to query and select data from a table, Grant Usage only allows them to view its metadata. Grant Usage does not allow users to query or analyze the data. Grant Usage is useful for granting permissions to users that require access to an object’s metadata but do not need to view or manipulate the data.Another critical difference between Grant Usage and Grant Select is that Grant Usage grants view access to all columns in the object, while Grant Select only permits access to specified columns. Grant Usage is useful for users that require access to all columns in an object, such as schema designers.

Conclusion

Grant Usage and Grant Select are both valuable Snowflake commands that allow organizations to control users’ access to their data. Knowing the difference between the two commands is critical to managing data security effectively.Grant Usage grants users the permission to view an object’s metadata, while Grant Select permits users to query and select data from a table. Grant Usage is ideal for granting permissions to users that do not need to query or analyze an object’s data. Grant Select is used to grant read-only access to the table or view.By utilizing these commands effectively, you can better manage access to your organization’s data, keeping it secure and protected.