A Step-by-Step Guide To Snowflake Data Visualization

How do you visualize your Snowflake data? Snowsight, the visual interface of Snowflake, allows two different easy ways to visualize your data within Snowflake- by using charts or dashboards.

If you have large data volume and all the data from different sources are centralized to Snowflake, both of these methods will be very useful to easily visualize your data and take driven decisions.

In this article, I will walk you through how to use Charts and dashboards in Snowflake to visualize your data. I will also explain the various features in Snowflake that support both of these ways of data visualization. 

Let’s get started!

What is Snowflake Data Visualization?

Snowflake data visualization refers to the graphical representation of your data by leveraging visual components such as maps, charts, and graphs to make it more accessible and intuitive for your use cases. The main objective of data visualization is to make the data ready for drawing conclusions from patterns and trends you can observe in big data sets.

Snowflake updated its UI to join this train and included some dashboarding and visualization features. 

Now, let’s dive into how to visualize your data by using charts Snowsight. 

Method 1: Using Charts to Visualize data

Snowsight is the web interface of Snowflake. It provides a unified experience for working with your data by using SQL or Python. The charts in Snowsight can change the query results into useful visualizations that brings out the logical relationships and enables you to take data-driven decisions. By using charts, you can easily identify patterns in data.

The following are the different types of charts that Snowsight supports:

• Bar charts
• Line charts
• Scatterplots
• Heat grids
• Scorecards

Next, let’s learn how to create a chart. 

Step 1: Create a chart

• Open a new worksheet in Snowsight.
• Run your worksheet.
• Choose the Chart that appears above the results table for the query.

Step 2: Modify a chart

Once you choose a chart to visualize the worksheet data, Snowsight automatically create a chart depending on the query results. Each query supports a distinct type of chart at a time.

You can see the details of the data points by hovering over the chart. The following is an example where the line chart represents the results.

It allows you to change which type of chart you want Snowsight to show the query results. 

• Choose the chart type to select the type as given in the figure below.
  

To make any changes in the columns, check Data section:

Choose a column to change the column attributes which are:

• Add or remove the  columns.
• Select another column in the query results to use the chart.

• Change how column data is shown in the chart.
• It also lets you change the column attributes to configure how your data is rendered in your chart. 
• You can style the chart in the Appearance section. The settings is based on the type of chart. For a heatgrid chart, it will be shown as given below:

So, the content of the chart is based on the query results. For example, the following query is based on the Snowflake sample data:

SELECT

  COUNT(O_ORDERDATE) as orders, O_ORDERDATE as date

FROM

  SNOWFLAKE_SAMPLE_DATA.TPCH_SF1.ORDERS

WHERE

  O_ORDERDATE = :daterange

GROUP BY

  :datebucket(O_ORDERDATE), O_ORDERDATE

ORDER BY

  O_ORDERDATE

LIMIT 10;

Step 3: Charts and new query results

The chart be updated automatically as the columns in the chart are there in your query results. When there is any change in the column, you should update the chart with the new column name. Charts will show the columns that couldn’t be found.

Step 4: Aggregate and bucket data

Charts can simplify clubbing numbers, dates, and timestamps of values into different buckets. Charts can bucket based on date, week, month, and year for date columns. For numeric columns, charts can group by integer values.

Charts utilizes aggregation functions to decide a single value from more than one data points in a bucket. These functions used are given below:

• average
• count
• minimum
• maximum
• median
• mode
• sum

Step 5: Download charts

You can download a chart in PNG-format. To download a chart, choose Download chart ().

In the next section, let’s see how to use dashboards for visualization.

Method 2: Using dashboards

You can use dashboards to communicate query results using charts we learnt in hte previous secton. Dashboards are collections of charts arranged as tiles which are flexible. They can be customized once you create them using query results. Dashboards can also be created from the charts in worksheets. 

Create a dashboard

There are two ways to create a dashboard- either create an empty dashboard or generate one from the  worksheet.

1. Create an empty dashboard

To create an empty dashboard,

• Log in to Snowsight.
• Choose Projects » Dashboards in the menu.
• Choose + Dashboard.
• Type in a name for the dashboard, and choose Create Dashboard.

And, there you go! The empty dashboard is created.

2. Create a dashboard from an existing worksheet

When you use a worksheet to create a dashboard, the worksheet is removed from the list of worksheets and can only be accessed from the dashboard. The worksheet query is stored in the dashboard and can be modified in that context.

To create a dashboard using an existing worksheet, complete the following steps:

• Open your worksheet.
• Hover over the name of the worksheet and select , and then select Move to.
• Select New dashboard.
• Type in a name for your dashboard, and choose the three dots to Create Dashboard.

Now, let’s understand how to use a dashboard.

How to use a dashboard?

Tiles visualize data on the dashboards in the form of charts and tables. Hover over the charts to view information about the data point.

1. Open a dashboard

To open your dashboard, finish the following steps:

• Login to Snowsight.
• Choose Projects » Dashboards in the menu.
• Find the dashboard that you want to open:
  • The Recent tab shows the dashboards you opened last.
  • The Shared With Me tab shows dashboards that other users shared with you.
  • The My dashboards tab shows your dashboards.

Manage a dashboard

When you view a dashboard, the following are the options you have:

• Choose the dashboard name to rename, duplicate, or delete your dashboard.
• Choose + to add a tile to the dashboard. 
• Choose to show, hide, and manage custom filters on the dashboard.
• Use the context selector to mention the role and warehouse to use for running the queries in your dashboard.
• Choose Share to share the dashboard with others in your team. 
• Choose Run to run the queries for the dashboard tiles.

Add a tile to a dashboard

To add a tile to a dashboard, 

• Open your dashboard.
• Choose + ().
• Choose New Tile from Worksheet.
• Use this worksheet to build your query.
• Once you are done with writing the query, choose Return to <dashboard name> to save your worksheet and add it to your dashboard.

Add an existing worksheet to a dashboard

To add an existing worksheet as a tile, 

• Open your worksheet.
• Choose three dots, and select Move to on the worksheet tab.
• Choose an existing dashboard.

Rearrange the order of tiles

By default, tiles will be at the bottom of the dashboard.

To change the arrangement of the the tiles on a dashboard, drag a tile to a new position.

Edit charts

To edit a chart that appears in a tile, 

• From the tile menu, click on the three dots and chooseView Chart. The chart will be opened.
• Modify the chart.
• Edit the chart, and choose Return to <dashboard name> to save the changes and go back to your dashboard.

Edit queries

To edit the query used for a tile, 

• From the tile menu, select the three dots and Edit query.
• Edit your query. 
• Once you finish editing query, choose Return to <dashboard name> to save your changes and go back your dashboard.

Configure a tile display

By default, when you move a worksheet to a dashboard, the tile shows a chart.

To modify the tile from a chart to a table of the query results,

• Remove that tile.
• Add a tile and drag the table version of that query to the dashboard.

If a tile shows a table and you want to add a chart tile on the same query, edit the query of the tile:

• From the tile menu, select the three dots and Edit Query.
• Choose Chart.
• Choose Return to <dashboard name> to save the changes and go back to dashboard.
  

Duplicate a tile

To duplicate a tile, 

• From the tile menu, select three dots and Duplicate Tile. You will see a new coy of the tile at the bottom of the dashboard.

Remove a tile

When you want to remove a tile from your dashboard, but without removing the underlying query, 

• To remove a tile, on the tile menu,select three dots and  Unplace Tile.
  Delete a tile

We have seen different options in using dashboard. Now how do we share the dashboard?

How to share dashboards?

This can be done in your account, or with a link.

The queries that drive dashboards in Snowsight use unique sessions with specific roles and warehouses. To see shared dashboards, a user should use the same role as the session context for the queries.

To share a dashboard, 

• Open your dashboard.
• Choose Share and a new window appears.
• Type in the names or usernames of the Snowflake users you want to invite. The list will show users. To share it users who haven’t signed in earlier,, share a link instead.
• You can set up how you want the users who signed in using the link interact with the dashboard. By default, people with the link wound’t be able to view the dashboard. 
• Optionally, choose Get Link to get a link to your dashboard that you can share with other users.
• Choose Done.

Conclusion

In this blog, we have covered two different ways to visualize your data in Snowflake- by using the charts and dashboards. The steps for both these methods are described in depth with examples. You should choose the method that is applicable for your Snowflake data.

But, what if you want to move data from other data systems to Snowflake? Here’s where Hevo Data can help you. Hevo is the only real-time data pipeline that can integrate your data cost effectively and by giving flexibility to you. It will help you transform your Snowflake data to make it analysis-ready. You can schedule a demo to take advantage of Hevo’s features.