While running an external function, the following error message is received: Error: Function received the wrong number of rows What is causing this to occur?

Question

Options

• AExternal functions do not support multiple rows.
• BNested arrays are not supported in the JSON response.
• CThe JSON returned by the remote service is not constructed correctly.
• DThe return message did not produce the same number of rows that it received.

• A
  4% (2)
• B
  5% (3)
• C
  2% (1)
• D
  89% (50)

Explanation

Option D is correct because external functions in platforms like Snowflake require the remote service to return exactly the same number of rows it received - each output row is matched back to an input row by position, so any count mismatch triggers this error. Option A is wrong because external functions explicitly support multiple rows in batches; that's a core use case, not a limitation. Option B is wrong because nested arrays are valid in JSON responses when structured properly, and a nesting issue would produce a different parsing error. Option C is a tempting distractor - malformed JSON does cause errors, but this specific error message points to a row count problem, not a structural JSON issue.

Memory tip: Think "rows in = rows out." The remote service acts like a 1-to-1 transformer - for every row Snowflake sends, it expects one row back. If the function filters or aggregates rows on the remote side without returning them all, this error fires.

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