Problem
When you try to use the UI to create a Delta table with an external data source in Delta format, you get the following error.
CloudFilesIllegalArgumentException: Reading from a Delta table is not supported with this syntax.
Cause
The UI is designed to create Delta tables from external data in CSV, TSV, JSON, Avro, Parquet, or text file formats.
Solution
Create the Delta table using a notebook command instead.
- Open a notebook in your Databricks workspace.
- Choose one of the following methods based on the table type you want to create.
External table type
CREATE TABLE <your-catalog>.<your-schema>.<your-table-name> LOCATION <your-delta-table-location>;
Managed table type
df=spark.read.format("delta").load("<your-delta-table-location>")
df.write.mode("overwrite").saveAsTable("<your-catalog.your-schema.your-table>")
For more information, review the Delta table streaming reads and writes (AWS | Azure | GCP) documentation.