User types: TYPE property is set to PERSON instead of NULL (Preview)

Attention

This behavior change is in the 2025_05 bundle.

For the current status of the bundle, refer to Bundle History.

There are different types of Snowflake users, where each type corresponds to a value of the user object’s TYPE property. Users of type NULL were always treated as if they were of type PERSON, and this change does not alter that behavior. This behavior change is about whether the user type can be NULL.

Before the change:

A user of type NULL is treated as a user of type PERSON. The user type can be NULL in the following situations:

  • The TYPE property isn’t set or is set to NULL when running a CREATE USER command.

  • Someone runs an ALTER USER … SET TYPE=NULL command.

  • Someone runs an ALTER USER … UNSET TYPE command.

  • A SCIM request doesn’t specify the type attribute or sets it to NULL.

After the change:

The TYPE property of a new user object can’t be NULL, and you can’t set the TYPE property of an existing user to NULL. This is enforced by the following behavior:

  • If you run a CREATE USER command without setting the TYPE property, it is set to PERSON.

  • If you run an ALTER USER … UNSET TYPE command, the TYPE property is set to PERSON.

  • If you run an ALTER USER … SET TYPE=NULL command, the TYPE property is set to PERSON.

  • If you send a SCIM POST request to create a user, and the type attribute is unspecified or NULL, the TYPE property is set to PERSON.

  • If you send a SCIM PATCH request with a replace operation that specifies the type attribute as NULL, the TYPE property doesn’t change.

  • If you send a SCIM PUT request with a replace operation, and the type attribute is unspecified or NULL, the TYPE property is set to PERSON.

  • If you send a SCIM PATCH request with a remove operation that unsets the type attribute, the TYPE property doesn’t change.

Ref: 2067

Language: English