Shortcut Managed Table

[mpolonskiy5637]

Hello,

I am trying to understand what a Shortcut Managed Table even is?

According to Spark Definition a Managed Table is a table which is stored in the Fabric Tables section and data as well as metadata are managed by spark. Moreover it is claimed that when dropping such a table, all data is physically removed. However, shortcuts on the other hand are supposed to be pointers to a different location, explicitly designed for not having to copy data to the lakehouse.

And deleting a shortcut table definetely does not affect the original source, nor does the lakehouse decrease in size (I checked with 

Get-AzDataLakeGen2ChildItem). Thus such a thing as a Shortcut Managed Table seems to be contradicting in itself. Shouldnt it either be Unamanged or External Tables always when refering to a shortcut?

Greetings

Michael

[AndyDDC · Accepted solution]

The Tables section of a Lakehouse is for both managed and unmanaged tables. So you can create a managed table and as you say data will be deleted along with the table if you delete it. You can also create an unmanaged table in the Tables section eg over data in the Files area of a Lakehouse, and yes data won't be deleted.

Shortcuts are just a quick way of referencing external data without having to manage a table definition.

However with shortcuts you need to be careful as you can delete the source files if you select a folder or file under the shortcut and delete. Deleting the shortcut definition itself won't delete the source data.