What does the STRIP_OUTER_ARRAY option do when loading semi-structured data?

• A. If the variant data exceeds 16 MB, enable the STRIP_OUTER_ARRAY file format option for the COPY INTO <table> command to remove the outer array structure and load the records into separate table rows
• B. It compresses the data further
• C. It changes data type to string
• D. It adds an outer array structure to each row

Answer: (A)

Flattening a top-level array when loading semi-structured data. STRIP_OUTER_ARRAY tells Snowflake to remove the outer array wrapper so that each element inside that top-level array becomes its own row in the target table. This is especially important when the array is large and could exceed the 16 MB limit for a single VARIANT value if kept as one element. By stripping the outer array, you get a row-per-element load, enabling you to store each record separately rather than loading one giant VARIANT that contains the entire array. It doesn’t change data types or compress data, and it only applies when the input is indeed a top-level array; otherwise it has no effect.