swapDatabase

Last updated: January 27, 2026

Atomically swaps the contents of two databases in Snowflake. This operation exchanges all schemas, tables, and objects between the databases in a single transaction.

Note: Automatic rollback swaps the databases back.

Known limitation: This change type does not support database inspection features (snapshot, diff, diff-changelog, and generate-changelog commands).

Available attributes

Attribute	Type	Description	Required
`databaseName`	String	Name of the first database to swap	Yes
`targetDatabaseName`	String	Name of the second database to swap with	Yes
`ifExists`	Boolean	Only execute if both databases exist	No

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<databaseChangeLog
        xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"
        xmlns:pro-snowflake="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro-snowflake"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-latest.xsd
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro-snowflake
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro-snowflake/liquibase-pro-snowflake-latest.xsd">

    <!-- Basic swap -->
    <changeSet id="swap-database-basic" author="examples">
        <pro-snowflake:swapDatabase
            databaseName="DATABASE_A"
            targetDatabaseName="DATABASE_B"/>
    </changeSet>

    <!-- Swap with IF EXISTS -->
    <changeSet id="swap-database-if-exists" author="examples">
        <pro-snowflake:swapDatabase
            databaseName="DATABASE_A"
            targetDatabaseName="DATABASE_B"
            ifExists="true"/>
    </changeSet>

</databaseChangeLog>

{
  "databaseChangeLog": [
    {
      "changeSet": {
        "id": "swap-database-basic",
        "author": "examples",
        "changes": [
          {
            "swapDatabase": {
              "databaseName": "DATABASE_A",
              "targetDatabaseName": "DATABASE_B"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "changeSet": {
        "id": "swap-database-if-exists",
        "author": "examples",
        "changes": [
          {
            "swapDatabase": {
              "databaseName": "DATABASE_A",
              "targetDatabaseName": "DATABASE_B",
              "ifExists": true
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

databaseChangeLog:
  # Basic swap
  - changeSet:
      id: swap-database-basic
      author: examples
      changes:
        - swapDatabase:
            databaseName: DATABASE_A
            targetDatabaseName: DATABASE_B

  # Swap with IF EXISTS
  - changeSet:
      id: swap-database-if-exists
      author: examples
      changes:
        - swapDatabase:
            databaseName: DATABASE_A
            targetDatabaseName: DATABASE_B
            ifExists: true

--liquibase formatted sql

--changeset examples:basic-swap
-- Basic swap
ALTER DATABASE DATABASE_A SWAP WITH DATABASE_B;

--changeset examples:swap-with-if-exists
-- Swap with IF EXISTS
ALTER DATABASE IF EXISTS DATABASE_A SWAP WITH DATABASE_B;

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<databaseChangeLog
        xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"
        xmlns:pro-snowflake="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro-snowflake"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-latest.xsd
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro-snowflake
        http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro-snowflake/liquibase-pro-snowflake-latest.xsd">

    <!-- Basic swap -->
    <changeSet id="swap-database-basic" author="examples">
        <pro-snowflake:swapDatabase
            databaseName="DATABASE_A"
            targetDatabaseName="DATABASE_B"/>
    </changeSet>

    <!-- Swap with IF EXISTS -->
    <changeSet id="swap-database-if-exists" author="examples">
        <pro-snowflake:swapDatabase
            databaseName="DATABASE_A"
            targetDatabaseName="DATABASE_B"
            ifExists="true"/>
    </changeSet>

</databaseChangeLog>

{
  "databaseChangeLog": [
    {
      "changeSet": {
        "id": "swap-database-basic",
        "author": "examples",
        "changes": [
          {
            "swapDatabase": {
              "databaseName": "DATABASE_A",
              "targetDatabaseName": "DATABASE_B"
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "changeSet": {
        "id": "swap-database-if-exists",
        "author": "examples",
        "changes": [
          {
            "swapDatabase": {
              "databaseName": "DATABASE_A",
              "targetDatabaseName": "DATABASE_B",
              "ifExists": true
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

databaseChangeLog:
  # Basic swap
  - changeSet:
      id: swap-database-basic
      author: examples
      changes:
        - swapDatabase:
            databaseName: DATABASE_A
            targetDatabaseName: DATABASE_B

  # Swap with IF EXISTS
  - changeSet:
      id: swap-database-if-exists
      author: examples
      changes:
        - swapDatabase:
            databaseName: DATABASE_A
            targetDatabaseName: DATABASE_B
            ifExists: true

--liquibase formatted sql

--changeset examples:basic-swap
-- Basic swap
ALTER DATABASE DATABASE_A SWAP WITH DATABASE_B;

--changeset examples:swap-with-if-exists
-- Swap with IF EXISTS
ALTER DATABASE IF EXISTS DATABASE_A SWAP WITH DATABASE_B;

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Official Snowflake documentation

Snowflake: ALTER DATABASE

swapDatabase

Available attributes

XML example

JSON example

YAML example

SQL example

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