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Using PolyBase to Load Data to a Dedicated SQL Pool Table

PolyBase allows you to read/write data in external storage using T-SQL. Using it, you can load the data into a dedicated SQL pool table in parallel. In this lab, we'll create various PolyBase components to load the data from a data lake file to a table in the dedicated SQL pool.

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Path Info

Level
Clock icon Intermediate
Duration
Clock icon 45m
Last updated
Clock icon Aug 31, 2025

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Table of Contents

  1. Challenge

    Set Up the Environment

    1. Create an Azure Synapse Analytics instance by defining a new Azure Data Lake Gen2 account.
    2. Create a container named taxidata in the data lake account.

  2. Challenge

    Set Up Dedicated SQL Pool Instance

    Within Synapse workspace, create a dedicated SQL pool instance named TaxiRidesWarehouse, with the performance level of DW100c.

  3. Challenge

    Define PolyBase Components to Read Data Lake File

    1. Use Synapse's integrated UI to generate a script creating an external table on file TaxiRides.parquet.

    2. Run the script to create the external table and read data from it.

      Note: For this objective, make sure you have downloaded the TaxiRides.parquet file that is located in this GitHub repository

  4. Challenge

    Create Table in Dedicated SQL Pool Using CTAS

    1. Use the CTAS (CREATE TABLE AS SELECT) command to create a new table named TaxiRides and load data to it using the external table. The command is available in the Additional Information and Resources section.
    2. Run a query on the TaxiRides table and verify the data load.
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