Which metadata column specifies the action (INSERT or DELETE) in the stream?

• A. METADATA$ACTION
• B. METADATA$ROW_ID
• C. METADATA$ROW_NUMBER
• D. METADATA$ISUPDATE

Answer: (A)

In a Snowflake stream, each change carries metadata that tells you what happened. The column that records the type of DML that produced the row is METADATA$ACTION. It will show values like INSERT or DELETE, telling you whether that stream row represents a new row or a removed one, which is essential for applying changes to a target table. Other metadata columns have different roles: METADATA$ROW_ID provides a stable identifier for the row, METADATA$ROW_NUMBER gives the sequence order within the stream payload, and METADATA$ISUPDATE indicates whether the row corresponds to an update scenario, but none of these replace the need to know the action. So the best answer for indicating the operation is METADATA$ACTION.