Snowflake supports querying semi-structured data using specific data types that are capable of handling the flexibility and structure of such data. The data types supported for this purpose are:
* A. VARIANT: This is a universal data type that can store values of any other type, including structured and semi-structured types. It is particularly useful for handling JSON, Avro, ORC, Parquet, and XML data formats1.
* B. ARRAY: An array is a list of elements that can be of any data type, including VARIANT, and is used to handle semi-structured data that is naturally represented as a list1.
These data types are part of Snowflake's built-in support for semi-structured data, allowing for the storage, querying, and analysis of data that does not fit into the traditional row-column format.
References:
* Snowflake Documentation on Semi-Structured Data
* [COF-C02] SnowPro Core Certification Exam Study Guide

A directory table in Snowflake is an object layered on a stage that is used to store file-level metadata. It is not a separate database object but is conceptually similar to an external table because it stores metadata about the data files in the stage5.