Snowflake - upload CSV - issue with only one accented character

Question

I have an issue with an accented character when I upload a CSV file and then copy it into a table. the weird thing is that most accented letters are just fine, but one is being replaced by '�' when queried.

Another thing, when I use an INSERT statement, no issue whatsoever.

I use an internal stage. here's the file format definition:

create or replace file format MY_FORMAT
    type = csv
    record_delimiter = '\n'
    field_delimiter = ';'
    field_optionally_enclosed_by = '"'
    skip_header = 1
    null_if = ('NULL', 'null')
    empty_field_as_null = true
    compression = gzip
    validate_UTF8=false
    skip_blank_lines = true;

The file built in Excel, saved as CSV UTF-8. No other issues, no errors, all my rows are uploaded, just that one character that's supposed to be a "û" that turns out to be "�".

Any ideas?

Thanks,

JFS.

Answer 1

It could an issue with the terminal being used. Please try and check in a different terminal or web UI. I simulated the scenario and I get the result as expected. Please refer below -

#### Data contents for so_testfile.csv
id;name
1;"û"
2;"û"
3;"û"
4;"û"

SNOWFLAKE1#COMPUTE_WH@TEST_DB.PUBLIC>create or replace stage so_my_stage file_format=SO_MY_FORMAT;
+----------------------------------------------+
| status                                       |
|----------------------------------------------|
| Stage area SO_MY_STAGE successfully created. |
+----------------------------------------------+
1 Row(s) produced. Time Elapsed: 0.138s
SNOWFLAKE1#COMPUTE_WH@TEST_DB.PUBLIC>put file://c:\snowflake\so_testfile.csv @so_my_stage;
+-----------------+--------------------+-------------+-------------+--------------------+--------------------+----------+---------+
| source          | target             | source_size | target_size | source_compression | target_compression | status   | message |
|-----------------+--------------------+-------------+-------------+--------------------+--------------------+----------+---------|
| so_testfile.csv | so_testfile.csv.gz |          39 |          64 | NONE               | GZIP               | UPLOADED |         |
+-----------------+--------------------+-------------+-------------+--------------------+--------------------+----------+---------+
1 Row(s) produced. Time Elapsed: 1.100s
SNOWFLAKE1#COMPUTE_WH@TEST_DB.PUBLIC>select $1,$2 from @so_my_stage;
+----+----+
| $1 | $2 |
|----+----|
| 1  | û  |
| 2  | û  |
| 3  | û  |
| 4  | û  |
+----+----+
4 Row(s) produced. Time Elapsed: 0.308s
SNOWFLAKE1#COMPUTE_WH@TEST_DB.PUBLIC>select * from SO_TEST_TAB;
+----+------+
| ID | COL1 |
|----+------|
+----+------+
0 Row(s) produced. Time Elapsed: 0.388s
SNOWFLAKE1#COMPUTE_WH@TEST_DB.PUBLIC>copy into SO_TEST_TAB from @so_my_stage;
+--------------------------------+--------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------+
| file                           | status | rows_parsed | rows_loaded | error_limit | errors_seen | first_error | first_error_line | first_error_character | first_error_column_name |
|--------------------------------+--------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------|
| so_my_stage/so_testfile.csv.gz | LOADED |           4 |           4 |           1 |           0 | NULL        |             NULL |                  NULL | NULL                    |
+--------------------------------+--------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------+
1 Row(s) produced. Time Elapsed: 0.833s
SNOWFLAKE1#COMPUTE_WH@TEST_DB.PUBLIC>select * from so_test_tab;
+----+------+
| ID | COL1 |
|----+------|
|  1 | û    |
|  2 | û    |
|  3 | û    |
|  4 | û    |
+----+------+
4 Row(s) produced. Time Elapsed: 0.263s
SNOWFLAKE1#COMPUTE_WH@TEST_DB.PUBLIC>

Answer 2

It turns out that coding the file properly as CSV UTF-8 from Excel worked. The "û" is now displayed correctly, just like all others accented letters we have in French.

Thanks for your help.

JFS.