CLONE (Databricks SQL)

Preview

Clones a source Delta table to a target destination at a specific version. A clone can be either deep or shallow: deep clones copy over the data from the source and shallow clones do not.

Important

There are important differences between shallow and deep clones that can determine how best to use them. See Clone a Delta table.

Syntax

CREATE TABLE [IF NOT EXISTS] table_name
   [SHALLOW | DEEP] CLONE source_table_name [LOCATION path]

[CREATE OR] REPLACE TABLE table_name
   [SHALLOW | DEEP] CLONE source_table_name [LOCATION path]

Parameters

IF NOT EXISTS

If specified the statement is ignored if table_name already exists.
[CREATE OR] REPLACE

If CREATE OR is specified the table is replaced if it exists and newly created if it does not. Without CREATE OR the table_name must exist.
table_name(sql-ref-names.md#table-name)

The name of the Delta Lake table to be created. The name must not include a temporal specification. If the name is not qualified the table is created in the current database. table_name must not exist already unless REPLACE or IF NOT EXISTS has been specified.
SHALLOW CLONE or DEEP CLONE

If you specify SHALLOW CLONE Databricks will make a copy of the source table’s definition, but refer to the source table’s files. When you specify DEEP CLONE (default) Databricks will make a complete, independent copy of the source table.
source_table_name

The name of the Delta Lake table to be cloned. The name may include a temporal specification.
LOCATION path

Optionally creates an external table, with the provided location as the path where the data is stored. If table_name itself a path instead of a table identifier, the operation will fail. path must be a STRING literal.

Examples

You can use CLONE for complex operations like data migration, data archiving, machine learning flow reproduction, short-term experiments, data sharing, and so on. See Clone use cases for a few examples.