Delta table ADLSG2 vs Fabric (external shortcut)

[Mnnleus]

Hello,

I want to make an external shortcut from Fabric to retrieve data from my ADLSG2 account. To do this I was going to transform my refined table from my wharehouse (the Dedicated SQL Pool) into a delta table from a Synapse lakehouse. But I came across this site which states that the conversion of SQL tables to delta tables is uneven:

https://www.pythian.com/blog/technical-track/understanding-the-differences-between-azure-synapse-ana....

would anyone be able to tell me more about this?

Thanks in advance!

[v-cboorla-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @Mnnleus 

Thanks for using Microsoft Fabric Community.

The unevenness in converting SQL tables directly to Delta tables within Synapse lakehouse seems to be a challenging concern, following are the challenges with Direct Conversion.

Schema Translation: There can be discrepancies between SQL data types and their corresponding Delta table types. For instance, there's no direct equivalent for geography in Delta tables. You might need to convert such types to a compatible format like string or a spatial data type supported by Delta.

Functionality Gaps: Features like stored procedures and triggers in SQL tables aren't directly transferable to Delta tables. While Delta offers capabilities like triggers through Delta Lake Streams, it requires a different implementation approach compared to traditional SQL triggers.

Performance Concerns: For very large or complex tables, directly converting them from SQL to Delta tables can be resource-intensive. This can lead to longer processing times and potentially higher costs.

I hope this information helps. Please do let us know if you have any further queries.

Thank you.

[Mnnleus]

Thank you very much for your detailed answer!

[v-cboorla-msft]

Hi @Mnnleus 

Glad that you query got resolved.
Please continue using Fabric Community for further queries.

Thanks.