Connect to Snowflake Data in JRuby

JRuby is a high-performance, stable, fully-threaded Java implementation of the Ruby programming language. The CData JDBC Driver for Snowflake makes it easy to integrate connectivity to live Snowflake data in JRuby. This article shows how to create a simple JRuby app that connects to Snowflake data, executes a query, and displays the results.

Configure a JDBC Connection to Snowflake Data

Before creating the app, note the installation location for the JAR file for the JDBC Driver (typically C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for Snowflake\lib).

JRuby natively supports JDBC, so you can easily connect to Snowflake and execute SQL queries. Initialize the JDBC connection with the getConnection function of the java.sql.DriverManager class. Below is a typical JDBC connection string for Snowflake:

jdbc:snowflake:User=Admin;Password=test123;Server=localhost;Database=Northwind;Warehouse=TestWarehouse;Account=Test

To connect to Snowflake, set the User, Password, and AuthScheme properties.

In addition, set Account to the Snowflake account and set URL to the URL of the Snowflake instance (i.e.: https://myaccount.snowflakecomputing.com).

Last, set Warehouse, Database, and Schema to the corresponding Snowflake values.

See the Getting Started guide in the CData driver documentation for more information.

Create a JRuby App With Connectivity to Snowflake Data

Create a new Ruby file (for example, SnowflakeSelect.rb) and open it in a text editor. Copy the following code into your file:

require 'java'
require 'rubygems'
require 'C:/Program Files/CData/CData JDBC Driver for Snowflake 2018/lib/cdata.jdbc.snowflake.jar'

url = "jdbc:snowflake:User=Admin;Password=test123;Server=localhost;Database=Northwind;Warehouse=TestWarehouse;Account=Tester1;"
conn = java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(url)
stmt = conn.createStatement
rs = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT Id, ProductName FROM Products")
while (rs.next) do
puts rs.getString(1) + ' ' + rs.getString(2)
end

With the file completed, you are ready to display your Snowflake data with JRuby. To do so, simply run your file from the command line: 

jruby -S SnowflakeSelect.rb

Writing SQL-92 queries to Snowflake allows you to quickly and easily incorporate Snowflake data into your own JRuby applications. Download a free trial today!