# Accessing external tables in snowflake from dbt

**URL:** <https://discourse.getdbt.com/t/accessing-external-tables-in-snowflake-from-dbt/15208>\
**Category:** Help\
**Tags:** external-tables, snowflake, dbt-cloud\
**Created:** [August 29, 2024, 3:56pm UTC](https://discourse.getdbt.com/t/accessing-external-tables-in-snowflake-from-dbt/15208 "2024-08-29T15:56:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![skhan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/discourse.getdbt.com/skhan/32/4462_2.png) [@skhan](https://discourse.getdbt.com/u/skhan)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2024, 3:56pm UTC](https://discourse.getdbt.com/t/accessing-external-tables-in-snowflake-from-dbt/15208/1 "2024-08-29T15:56:50Z")

</div>

## The problem I’m having

If I create external tables in snowflake via snowsight, can I access the external tables using dbt source object just like how dbt source pulls data from any table/view.

## The context of why I’m trying to do this

I am asking this question because I am doing a POC where we have a legacy project already having Stage tables pointing data from parquet files hosted on ADLS.  
I have to run certain transformations on the stage tables, can I access them via dbt source **without the use of package dbt\_external\_tables**

Also, I could’ve tried this before asking but I am not having access to those stage tables at the moment.