The age of big data and the emergence of the data cloud inevitably saw the arrival of a variety of advanced analytics platforms and integrated data applications.

Snowflake, global leader in cloud data platforms, presents many different methods of connecting, using, and analyzing data for users. In addition to the Snowflake web interface and SnowSQL, it also supports numerous other methods for connecting, including:

• Using 3rd-party client services and applications that support JDBC or ODBC.
• Developing applications that connect through the Snowflake connectors/drivers for Python, Node. js, Spark, etc.

However, for some, one of the most useful ways is connecting direct to Excel (using the official ODBC Driver). It is familiar and far less intimidating than running SQL queries and allows users to make use of formulas, charts with an interface they are more comfortable with.

Onboarding Team Lead at OAG Glen Teoh says:

“With a direct connection to Snowflake from Excel, users get the best of both worlds - run SQL queries on the Snowflake database from within the Excel interface, taking advantage of Snowflake's data warehousing and computational prowess before it's loaded into Excel. Once it's in Excel, the familiar power queries, formulas, sorting, VBA and other useful Excel functions such as pivot tables and pivot charts are all available to you which can be an invaluable bridge between a manager who is proficient at Excel and a database analyst who is an expert on SQL.”

Read Glen’s step-by-step guide to connecting Snowflake to Excel.