READ_FILE

Introduced or updated: v1.2.882

Reads the content of a file from a stage and returns it as a BINARY value. This is useful for loading raw file content (images, PDFs, binary data, etc.) directly into a table column.

Syntax

-- Single argument: combined stage and file path
READ_FILE('<stage_path>')

-- Two arguments: separate stage and relative file path
READ_FILE('<stage>', '<file_path>')

Parameters

Parameter	Description
stage_path	A combined stage and file path starting with @, e.g., '@my_stage/path/to/file.png'.
stage	The stage name starting with @, e.g., '@my_stage'. The stage is validated at bind time when it is a constant.
file_path	The relative file path within the stage, e.g., 'path/to/file.png'.

Return Type

BINARY. Returns NULL if any argument is NULL.

Examples

Reading a single file

-- Read a file using a combined stage path
SELECT to_hex(read_file('@my_stage/data/file.csv'));

-- Read a file using separate stage and path arguments
SELECT to_hex(read_file('@my_stage', 'data/file.csv'));

Reading files from a table column

-- Create a table with file paths
CREATE TABLE file_paths(path STRING);
INSERT INTO file_paths VALUES
    ('@my_stage/images/01.png'),
    ('@my_stage/images/02.png'),
    (NULL);

-- Read all files referenced in the table
SELECT path, to_hex(read_file(path)) AS content_hex FROM file_paths;

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│           path           │       content_hex      │
├──────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│ @my_stage/images/01.png  │ 89504e47...            │
│ @my_stage/images/02.png  │ 89504e47...            │
│ NULL                     │ NULL                   │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Using two-argument form with relative paths

-- Create a table with relative file paths
CREATE TABLE rel_paths(path STRING);
INSERT INTO rel_paths VALUES
    ('data/file1.csv'),
    ('data/file2.csv');

-- Read files using a fixed stage and relative paths from the table
SELECT path, to_hex(read_file('@my_stage', path)) AS content_hex FROM rel_paths;