Which pseudocolumn identifies the name of each staged data file included in the external table, including its path in the stage?

• A. VALUE
• B. METADATA$FILE_ROW_NUMBER
• C. A VARIANT type column
• D. METADATA$FILENAME

Answer: (D)

Pseudocolumns for external tables expose metadata about where each row came from. The one that shows the exact file name and its path in the stage for every row is METADATA$FILENAME. This lets you trace each row back to the source file it originated from, including where that file sits in your stage.

METADATA$FILE_ROW_NUMBER, on the other hand, tells you the row’s position within a file—not the file’s name or path. A VARIANT type column would be a data column, not metadata about the source Files. VALUE isn’t a pseudocolumn that provides file information.

So METADATA$FILENAME is the right choice because it directly identifies the source file and its path for each row.