Announcing the LocalStack for Snowflake 1.7 Release

Introduction

LocalStack for Snowflake 1.7 delivers focused improvements to Snowflake Scripting, information_schema coverage, and SQL function support. This release extends Snowflake Scripting with anonymous code blocks, IF-ELSE conditional logic, and exception handling, enabling more comprehensive testing of procedural workflows locally.

Beyond scripting enhancements, version 1.7 expands information_schema coverage with support for columns, schemata, and databases views, adds several aggregate and bitwise functions commonly used in analytics, and includes targeted parity improvements for dynamic tables, session variable handling, window functions with DISTINCT, and LIKE/ILIKE operators.

Get your free LocalStack trial to access the latest features in LocalStack for Snowflake 1.7!

How to upgrade?

To upgrade to LocalStack for Snowflake 1.7 using the LocalStack CLI, run:

docker pull localstack/snowflake:1.7.0
localstack start --stack snowflake

If you’re using LocalStack for Snowflake with Docker CLI or Docker Compose, you can pin the image version in your docker run command or Docker Compose file to 1.7.0.

What’s new in LocalStack for Snowflake 1.7?

• Expanded Snowflake Scripting Features
• Enhanced information_schema views
• Support for several new SQL functions
• Improved parity with Snowflake

Expanded Snowflake Scripting Features

The Snowflake emulator now provides extended support for Snowflake Scripting with several key additions that enable more sophisticated procedural logic testing locally.

This update brings the emulator closer to full Snowflake Scripting parity with the following key additions:

• Support for anonymous blocks: Enables execution of procedural SQL logic outside of stored procedures and UDFs, useful for ad-hoc procedural code without creating persistent objects.
• Support for IF-ELSEIF-ELSE conditional clauses: Enables branching logic in stored procedures and anonymous blocks, supporting nested expressions and multi-statement conditional paths.
• Support for exception handling: Enables EXCEPTION WHEN OTHER THEN blocks with access to SQLERRM and SQLSTATE variables for error logging and graceful error recovery.

Enhanced information_schema views

The Snowflake emulator now provides support for additional information_schema views, improving compatibility with tools and frameworks that query schema metadata.

The following information_schema views are now supported:

• information_schema.columns: Enables introspection of column-level metadata, including column names, data types, nullability, and comments.
• information_schema.schemata: Returns metadata about schemas within a database, including default and user-created schemas.
• information_schema.databases: Provides metadata about databases in the account.

Support for several new SQL functions

We have added support for several new SQL functions in LocalStack for Snowflake. The new functions include:

Improved parity with Snowflake

We have made several enhancements to LocalStack for Snowflake to improve compatibility with the Snowflake service. These include:

• Added support for date arithmetic operations (date +/- number and number + date), enabling date calculations commonly used in SQL queries.
• Enhanced LIKE and ILIKE operator support, including negated variants (NOT LIKE, NOT ILIKE), improving compatibility with pattern-matching queries on semi-structured data.
• Added support for ALTER DYNAMIC TABLE ... RENAME TO and ALTER DYNAMIC TABLE ... SET (for TARGET_LAG and WAREHOUSE properties), along with enhanced metadata tracking in SHOW DYNAMIC TABLES.
• Extended IDENTIFIER() function support to handle DROP SCHEMA IF EXISTS statements with fully-qualified names.
• Added support for multiple session variable assignment using SET (a, b, c) = (1, 2, 3) syntax, along with IDENTIFIER() function support for session variables.
• Added support for DISTINCT clause within window functions (e.g., COUNT(DISTINCT ...) OVER ...), transforming these expressions to produce compatible results.
• Enhanced SHOW TERSE command support for STAGES, PIPES, DYNAMIC TABLES, FUNCTIONS, and PROCEDURES, improving compatibility with the Snowflake extension for VS Code.

Conclusion

LocalStack for Snowflake 1.7 expands procedural SQL capabilities with Snowflake Scripting enhancements and improves schema introspection with additional information_schema views. The new aggregate and bitwise functions, combined with parity improvements for dynamic tables, window functions, and VARIANT operations, continue to refine local Snowflake development workflows.

Sign up for a free trial or upgrade to LocalStack for Snowflake 1.7 to use these improvements in your local development environment.