# Operators and Providers — Apache Airflow: Orchestrate Data Pipelines

Source: https://www.geekswithgeeks.com/en/airflow/dag-operators

> Use built-in and provider operators and know when to prefer the TaskFlow decorator.

## Templates for tasks

An **operator** is a reusable template for a kind of work: `BashOperator` runs a shell command, `PythonOperator` calls a function, `EmptyOperator` is a placeholder, and **provider packages** add operators for external systems (`apache-airflow-providers-amazon`, `-google`, `-postgres`, `-snowflake`, `-cncf-kubernetes`, and many more). Install only the providers you need. In Airflow 3 the core "standard" operators live in `airflow.providers.standard`, so imports differ from Airflow 2; always follow the documentation for your version.

## Tasks and the arrows between them

A DAG file declares tasks and dependencies; the shape of the graph is the plan of the run.

![Four tools: operators, TaskFlow, dependencies, schedule.](assets/figures/airflow/section-2-map.svg) — Figure 2.1 — Operators, TaskFlow, dependencies and schedule.

## Imports: Airflow 3 vs 2

The same DAG needs different imports depending on the major version. Pick the block that matches the version you installed.

```python
# Airflow 3.x
from airflow.sdk import DAG, dag, task
from airflow.providers.standard.operators.bash import BashOperator
from airflow.providers.standard.operators.python import PythonOperator

# Airflow 2.x
# from airflow import DAG
# from airflow.decorators import dag, task
# from airflow.operators.bash import BashOperator
# from airflow.operators.python import PythonOperator
```

## Prefer the specialised operator

A provider operator for your warehouse or cloud service handles connections, retries and idempotent behaviour better than a hand-written `BashOperator` that shells out to a CLI.

**Quiz:** What do provider packages add to Airflow?

- [ ] A new database
- [x] Operators, hooks and sensors for external systems
- [ ] Faster CPUs
- [ ] Browser themes

*Answer:* Operators, hooks and sensors for external systems. Providers package the integrations for clouds, databases and tools.