How to Consolidate DateTime Columns

Use Case

I have two SQL connectors. One syncs DateTime columns as TIMESTAMP_NTZ, whereas the other syncs DateTime columns as TIMESTAMP_TZ. How do I change the data type of the DateTime columns to be consistent across both the connectors?

Environment

Connector: SQL Server

Answer

You can consolidate the DateTime columns in two ways:

Change timestamps to TIMESTAMP_TZ

In your source database, alter the column's data type from TIMESTAMP_NTZ to TIMESTAMP_TZ. We sync the DateTime columns as TIMESTAMP_TZ.

Change timestamps to TIMESTAMP_NTZ

Drop the table from your destination schema. We sync the DateTime columns as TIMESTAMP_NTZ.

NOTE: This option may increase the Monthly Active Rows (MAR) of the table.

Cause

We changed our data type conversion strategy on March 2020:

• Connectors created before March 25, 2020 sync DateTime columns as TIMESTAMP_TZ.
• Connectors created on or after March 25, 2020 sync DateTime columns as TIMESTAMP_NTZ.

NOTE: If you are using a connector (created before March 25, 2020) and recently added a new table to sync, then the existing tables will have TIMESTAMP_TZ columns, and the new table will have TIMESTAMP_NTZ columns. Contact our support team if you want the data type to be consistent across all tables.