Updates to default data destination behavior in Dataflow Gen2
When you have a Lakehouse or Warehouse and you want to load data into it, you can use Dataflow Gen2 as an easy, low-code way for landing your data with the right shape.
You can always create a stand-alone Dataflow Gen2 and use the data destinations to load your data in any Fabric Lakehouse or Warehouse, but to speed up your development, there are some easy other ways to land your data faster.
This blog is to update you on the experience and important changes that were made.
Within the Lakehouse or Warehouse experience, you can get data through a variation of options.
When choosing Dataflow Gen2 from either the Lakehouse or the Warehouse, the data destination experience is slightly different from a ‘standard’ Dataflow Gen2 that was created from the workspace.
By default, any query that you create will have the Lakehouse or Warehouse you started from set as the data destination. If you hover over the data destination icon, you can see that the destination is labeled as ‘default destination’. This is different from the standard Dataflow Gen2, where you explicitly have to assign a query with a data destination.
With the default destination, the settings are set to a default behavior that cannot be changed. This are the behaviors for both Lakehouse and Warehouse default destination:
| Behavior | Lakehouse | Warehouse |
| Update method | Replace | Append |
| Schema change on publish | Dynamic | Fixed |
Note: Previously, update method for Lakehouse was append. This is now changed to replace.
To edit the settings of an individual data destination, use the gear icon to edit the destination. When you edit the individual data destination, this change is only affecting the specific query. It is currently not possible to change the behavior of the default destination.
