Explore the Google Cloud console

The Google Cloud console provides a graphical interface that you can use to create and manage BigQuery resources and run SQL queries.

To try BigQuery in the Google Cloud console, see the quickstart Query a public dataset with the Google Cloud console.

Before you begin

1. Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

2. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Go to project selector

3. In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Go to project selector

4. Enable the BigQuery API.

   Enable the API

   For new projects, the BigQuery API is automatically enabled.

5. Optional: Enable billing for the project. If you don't want to enable billing or provide a credit card, the steps in this document still work. BigQuery provides you a sandbox to perform the steps. For more information, see Enable the BigQuery sandbox.

Open BigQuery in the Google Cloud console

1. Go to the Google Cloud console.

   Go to the Google Cloud console

2. In the Google Cloud console toolbar, click menu Navigation menu.

3. Click Solutions > All products.

4. In the Analytics section, click BigQuery.

You can also open the BigQuery page by entering the following URL in your browser:

https://console.cloud.google.com/bigquery

BigQuery opens in your most recently accessed project.

To simplify navigation, you can add (or pin) BigQuery as a top product in the navigation menu:

1. In the Google Cloud console navigation menu, hold the pointer over BigQuery.

2. Click push_pin Pin.

Overview of the BigQuery page

The BigQuery page has three main sections:

• The BigQuery navigation menu
• The Explorer pane

• The details pane

  

Navigation menu

In the BigQuery navigation menu, you can select the following analysis, migration, and administration options:

• BigQuery Studio, which displays your datasets, tables, and other BigQuery resources. In this workspace, you can perform common BigQuery tasks such as the following:

  • Create, run, save, and share queries and Colab Enterprise notebooks.
  • Work with tables, views, routines, and other BigQuery resources.
  • See your BigQuery job history.

• Data transfers, which opens the BigQuery Data Transfer API page.

• Scheduled queries, which displays your scheduled queries.

• Analytics Hub, which displays all of the data exchanges that you can access in your Google Cloud project.

• SQL translation, which lets you convert your Teradata SQL queries so that they work in BigQuery.

• Capacity Management, which displays slot commitments, reservations, and reservation assignments.

• BI Engine, which opens the BI Engine page.

You can control how the BigQuery navigation menu is displayed:

• To collapse the navigation menu so that only the icons are visible, click Hide BigQuery navigation menu.

• To temporarily expand the menu when it's collapsed, hold the pointer over the menu.

• To expand the menu so that the labels stay visible, click Show BigQuery navigation menu.

Explorer pane

The Explorer pane is visible when you select BigQuery Studio in the navigation menu. This pane lists current Google Cloud projects and any starred projects.

To view the resources in your projects and datasets, do the following:

• To view the datasets that you have access to in a project, expand the project.

• To view tables, views, and functions in a dataset, expand the dataset.

You can also use the search box to search for resources by name (dataset, table, or view name) or by label within your current and starred projects. The search box finds the resources that directly match, or contain matches, to your search query. It might not show all the resources in the matched resource's level. To see all the resources, click Show more.

You can control how the Explorer pane is displayed:

• To collapse the Explorer pane, click the first_page icon.

• To expand the Explorer pane, click the last_page icon.

Details pane

The details pane shows information about your BigQuery resources. When you select a dataset, table, view, or other resource in the Explorer pane, a new tab is displayed. On these tabs, you can view information about the resource, or you can create tables and views, modify table schemas, export data, and perform other actions.

You can drag the tab to the edge of the editor to open it in a new column so that you can compare the tabs, or drag the tab to a different position in the current or an adjacent column. This feature is in preview.

In the query editor, you can run an interactive query and explore the results in the Query results pane that opens after you run the query.

When you navigate through tabs, the resource corresponding to the focused tab is selected in the Explorer pane. If you open BigQuery using your workspace URL, then your workspace query editor tab opens, and the corresponding resource is selected in the Explorer pane.

You can use the search bar at the top of the page to search for resources (projects, datasets, or tables), documentation, and products (such as Compute Engine and Cloud Storage) across Google Cloud. You might need permissions, similar to BigQuery permissions, to access resources in different products.

Work with projects

All of the work that you perform in BigQuery is done within a Google Cloud project. You can see the project name on the Google Cloud console toolbar:

Any costs that you incur for using BigQuery are charged to the billing account that's attached to the project. For more information, see BigQuery pricing.

Switch to a project

To switch to a Google Cloud project in the Google Cloud console, follow these steps:

1. On the Google Cloud console toolbar, click the name of your project.

2. In the projects dialog, click the name of the project that you want to switch to.

   This selection becomes your active project.

Star a project

You can star a Google Cloud project to the Explorer pane in the following three ways:

• If you have access to a dataset or table but don't have access to the project that contains that dataset, follow these steps:

  1. In the Explorer pane, click add Add data.

  2. In the Add data dialog, click Star a project by name.

  3. In the dialog, enter the name of the project that you want to star.

• If you have the Viewer (roles/viewer) IAM role on the project, you can follow one of the following methods:

  Method 1

  1. Switch to the project that you want to star.

  2. In the Explorer pane, hold the pointer over the name of the project that you want to star, and then click star_border Star.

  Method 2

  1. In the Explorer pane, click add Add data.

  2. In the Add data dialog, click Search for and star a project:

     

  3. In the dialog, click the name of the project that you want to star.

Remove a project

To remove a project from the Explorer pane, click the name of the project, and then click star Unstar.

Display resources

The Explorer pane lists datasets that you can browse in your current project or any projects that you starred.

• To display the datasets in a project, click arrow_right Toggle node for that project.
• To display the tables, views, and functions in a dataset, click the dataset.
• Resources are also displayed in the Explorer pane when you open them some other way. For example, when you create a table and then click Go to table, the Explorer pane highlights and shows that table under its dataset.

To display information about a resource in a project or dataset, click the name of the resource in the Explorer pane and view the details pane. The set of available actions depends on the resource. For example, the following image shows the tab for a table:

Star resources

If you have important or current projects, datasets, or tables, you can star them in the Explorer pane. To star a resource, hold the pointer over the name of the resource that you want to star, and then click star_border Star.

For more information on starring a project, see Star a project.

View starred resources

To view only the starred resources in the Explorer pane, click Show starred resources only in the Explorer pane.

To view all the resources in the Explorer pane, click Show all resources.

Unstar resources

To unstar a resource, click star Unstar next to the resource.

Welcome tab

The first time you open BigQuery, you see the welcome tab and a query editor tab, with the welcome tab in focus. The welcome tab contains the following demo guides:

• Run a sample query on a public dataset from Google Trends.

• Add data to BigQuery.

You may close the welcome tab, but it appears again when you refresh the page. If you want to see the welcome tab on startup, select the Show welcome page on startup checkbox. To go back to the welcome tab, click Welcome.

To open a query editor from the welcome tab, click add_box SQL query. To access ways to import data and search data sources that work with BigQuery, click add_box Add data.

If you open BigQuery using your workspace URL, then your workspace query editor tab opens first.

Run query demo guide

The Get started section contains the demo guide for running a sample query on a Google Trends public dataset.

To run the demo guide, follow these steps. To exit the demo at any time, click close Close tour.

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the BigQuery page.

   Go to BigQuery

2. Ensure that you are on the BigQuery welcome page: click Welcome.

3. Click search Open this query.

   The bigquery-public-data project is automatically added to the Explorer pane. The public project and the google_trends dataset are expanded, and the Google Trends Data dialog highlights the starred top_terms table. Additionally, the query editor is opened with a predefined query.

   

4. In the Google Trends Data dialog, click Next.

5. In the Google Trends Query dialog, click Next.

   To return to the previous step, click Back in the dialog.

6. In the Run this query dialog, click Try it.

   To return to the previous step, click Back in the dialog.

7. In the Query results dialog, click Done.

   

You can run this demo multiple times.

To view the Google Trends public dataset, in the welcome page, click View dataset.

Run add data demo guide

The Add your own data section contains the demo guide for adding data to BigQuery through popular sources.

To run the demo guide, follow these steps. To exit the demo at any time, click close Close tour. To return to the previous step where applicable, click Back.

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the BigQuery page.

   Go to BigQuery

2. Ensure that you are on the BigQuery welcome page: click Welcome.

3. Click Launch this guide for one of the three options: local file, Google Drive, or Cloud Storage.

4. In the Open Add Data panel dialog, click Try it.

   The source type that you selected is highlighted on the Add data pane.

5. In the Select source dialog, click Try it.

6. In the Configure source details dialog, click Next.

7. In the Configure destination details dialog, click Next.

8. In the Create table dialog, click Done.

You can run this demo guide only once through either of the three available sources in the Add your own data section. After you complete the demo, the Launch this guide buttons change to Add data and act as a shortcut to the Create table subtask.

View recently accessed resources

In the Google Cloud console, you can view your 10 most recently accessed resources. These resources include tables, saved queries, models, and routines.

When you create or update a resource in the console or query editor, the resource is marked as recent. For a recently opened resource to be marked as recent, you have to open it in the workspace tab. If you run a query on a resource, then the resource is not marked as recent.

To view your recently accessed resources, follow these steps:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the BigQuery page.

   Go to BigQuery

2. Ensure that you are on the BigQuery welcome page: click Welcome.

   In the Recently accessed section, you see your 10 recently accessed resources:

   

You can star or open a resource in the Recently accessed section. To see more options, click more_vert View actions.

When you delete a recently accessed resource through the console or query editor, it is also removed from the Recently accessed section. If another user deletes your recently accessed resource or if you lose permission to that resource, you might still see the resource in the Recently accessed section. When you try to open or star that resource, it disappears and you see the Resource is no longer available message.

Work with tabs

You can control how you work with tabs in the details pane.

Split two tabs

Whenever you select a resource or click add_box Compose new query in the details pane, a new tab opens. If more than one tab is open, you can split the tabs into two panes and view them side by side.

To split tabs into two panes, follow these steps:

1. Next to the tab name, click arrow_drop_down Open menu.

2. Select one of the following options:

   • To place the selected tab in the left pane, select Split tab to left.
   • To place the selected tab in the right pane, select Split tab to right.

To unsplit the tabs, select arrow_drop_down Open menu on one of the open tabs, and then select Move tab to left pane or Move tab to right pane.

To split tabs when querying tables, follow these steps:

1. In the Explorer menu, click the table that you want to query.

2. Click Query, and then click In new tab or In split tab:

   

3. Click the field name that you want to query:

   

The following image shows the details pane with two open tabs. One tab has a SQL query, and the other tab shows details about a table.

Move a tab

To move a tab from one pane to the other pane, follow these steps:

1. Next to the tab name, click arrow_drop_down Open menu.

2. Select Move tab to right pane or Move tab to left pane (whichever option is available).

Close a tab

To close all tabs except for one, follow these steps:

1. Next to the tab name, click arrow_drop_down Open menu.

2. Select cancel Close other tabs.

View personal and project history

You can view job histories in the footer of the details pane:

• To view details of your own jobs, click Personal history.

• To view details of recent jobs in your project, click Project history.

To see the details of a job or to open the query in an editor, do the following:

1. In the Actions column for a job or query, click more_vert Actions.

2. Select Show job details or Open query in editor.

The job histories include all load, export, copy, and query jobs that you submitted in the past six months (up to 1,000 entries). The limit of 1,000 jobs is cumulative across all job types.

Keyboard shortcuts

To view shortcuts in the Google Cloud console, click keyboard BigQuery Studio shortcuts. The following keyboard shortcuts are supported in the Google Cloud console:

Examples

You can find Google Cloud console examples throughout the how-to guides section of the BigQuery documentation.

To see examples of loading data and querying data using the Google Cloud console, see the Load and query data with the Google Cloud console.

What's next

• To learn about querying a public dataset and using the BigQuery sandbox, see Query a public dataset with the Google Cloud console.