Explore the bq command-line tool

The bq command-line tool is a Python-based command-line tool for BigQuery. This page contains general information about using the bq command-line tool.

For a complete reference of all bq commands and flags, see the bq command-line tool reference.

Before you begin

Before you can use the bq command-line tool, you must use the Google Cloud console to create or select a project.

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. BigQuery is automatically enabled in new projects. To activate BigQuery in a preexisting project, go to

   Enable the BigQuery API.

   Enable the API

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.

Entering bq commands in Cloud Shell

You can enter bq command-line tool commands in Cloud Shell either from the Google Cloud console or from the Google Cloud CLI.

• To use bq command-line tool from the Google Cloud console, activate Cloud Shell:

  Activate Cloud Shell

• To use bq command-line tool from the gcloud CLI, install and configure the gcloud CLI.

Positioning flags and arguments

The bq command-line tool supports two kinds of flags:

• Global flags can be used in all commands.
• Command-specific flags apply to a specific command.

For a list of available global and command-specific flags, see bq command-line tool reference.

Place any global flags before the bq command, and then include command-specific flags. You can include multiple global or command-specific flags. For example:

bq --location=us mk --reservation --project_id=project reservation_name

You can specify command arguments in the following ways:

• --FLAG ARGUMENT (as shown in the previous examples)
• --FLAG=ARGUMENT
• --FLAG='ARGUMENT'
• --FLAG="ARGUMENT"
• --FLAG 'ARGUMENT'
• --FLAG "ARGUMENT"

Replace the following:

• FLAG: a global or command-specific flag
• ARGUMENT: the flag's argument

Some commands require the use of single or double quotes around arguments. This is often true when the argument contains spaces, commas, or other special characters. For example:

bq query --nouse_legacy_sql \
'SELECT
   COUNT(*)
 FROM
   `bigquery-public-data`.samples.shakespeare'

Flags with boolean values can be specified without an argument. If you specify true or false, then you must use the format FLAG=ARGUMENT.

For example, this command specifies false for the boolean flag --use_legacy_sql by placing no at the front of the flag:

bq query --nouse_legacy_sql \
'SELECT
   COUNT(*)
 FROM
   `bigquery-public-data`.samples.shakespeare'

Alternatively, to specify false as the flag's argument, you can enter the following:

bq query --use_legacy_sql=false \
'SELECT
   COUNT(*)
 FROM
   `bigquery-public-data`.samples.shakespeare'

Running queries from the bq command-line tool

To take a query that you've developed in the Google Cloud console and run it from the bq command-line tool, do the following:

1. Include the query in a bq query command as follows: bq query --use_legacy_sql=false 'QUERY'. Replace QUERY with the query.

2. Format the query string.

   If you need to use additional string literals within the query, you must follow the quoting rules for the shell that you are using, such as Bash or PowerShell.

   The following example shows a typical approach in Bash, which is to use double quotes to denote the string literals in the query, and then enclose the query itself in single quotes:

   'SELECT * FROM mydataset.mytable WHERE column1 = "value";'
   

   If you are copying the query from another location, you must also remove any comments in the query.

   For example, transform the following Google Cloud console query:

   -- count Shakespeare's use of the string "raisin"
   SELECT
     word,
     SUM(word_count) AS count
   FROM
     `bigquery-public-data`.samples.shakespeare
   WHERE
     word LIKE '%raisin%'
   GROUP BY
     word
   

   into a bq command-line tool query as follows:

   bq query --use_legacy_sql=false \
   'SELECT
     word,
     SUM(word_count) AS count
   FROM
     `bigquery-public-data`.samples.shakespeare
   WHERE
     word LIKE "%raisin%"
   GROUP BY
     word'
   

For more information, see Running interactive and batch query jobs.

Getting help

To get help for the bq command-line tool, you can enter the following commands:

• For the installed version of the bq command-line tool, enter bq version.
• For a full list of commands, enter bq help.
• For a list of global flags, enter bq --help.
• For help with a specific command, enter bq help COMMAND.
• For help with a specific command plus a list of global flags, enter bq COMMAND --help.

Replace COMMAND with the command that you need help with.

Setting default values for command-line flags

You can set default values for command-line flags by including them in the bq command-line tool's configuration file, .bigqueryrc. Before you configure your default options, you must first create a .bigqueryrc file. You can use your preferred text editor to create the file. After you create the .bigqueryrc file, you can specify the path to the file using the --bigqueryrc global flag.

If the --bigqueryrc flag is not specified, then the BIGQUERYRC environment variable is used. If that is not specified, then the path ~/.bigqueryrc is used. The default path is $HOME/.bigqueryrc.

Adding flags to .bigqueryrc

To add default values for command-line flags to .bigqueryrc:

• Place global flags at the top of the file without a header.
• For command-specific flags, enter the command name (in brackets) and add the command-specific flags (one per line) after the command name.

For example:

--apilog=stdout
--format=prettyjson
--location=US

[query]
--use_legacy_sql=false
--max_rows=100
--maximum_bytes_billed=10000000

[load]
--destination_kms_key=projects/myproject/locations/mylocation/keyRings/myRing/cryptoKeys/myKey

The preceding example sets default values for the following flags:

• The global flag --apilog is set to stdout to print debugging output to the Google Cloud console.
• The global flag --format is set to prettyjson to display command output in a human-readable JSON format.
• The global flag --location is set to the US multi-region location.

• The query command-specific flag --use_legacy_sql is set to false to make GoogleSQL the default query syntax.

• The query command-specific flag --max_rows is set to 100 to control the number of rows in the query output.

• The query command-specific flag --maximum_bytes_billed is set to 10,000,000 bytes (10 MB) to fail queries that read more than 10 MB of data.

• The load command-specific flag --destination_kms_key is set to projects/myproject/locations/mylocation/keyRings/myRing/cryptoKeys/myKey.

Running the bq command-line tool in an interactive shell

You can run the bq command-line tool in an interactive shell where you don't need to prefix the commands with bq. To start interactive mode, enter bq shell. After launching the shell, the prompt changes to the ID of your default project. To exit interactive mode, enter exit.

Running the bq command-line tool in a script

You can run the bq command-line tool in a script, as you would run a Google Cloud CLI command. The following is an example of gcloud and bq commands in a bash script:

#!/bin/bash
gcloud config set project myProject
bq query --use_legacy_sql=false --destination_table=myDataset.myTable \
'SELECT
   word,
   SUM(word_count) AS count
 FROM
   `bigquery-public-data`.samples.shakespeare
 WHERE
   word LIKE "%raisin%"
 GROUP BY
   word'

Running bq commands from a service account

You can use a service account to make authorized API calls or run query jobs on your behalf. To use a service account in the bq command-line tool, authorize access to Google Cloud from the service account. For more information, see gcloud auth activate-service-account.

To start running bq commands using service account impersonation, run the following command:

gcloud config set auth/impersonate_service_account SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME

Replace SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME with your service account name.

bq commands that you run now use the service account credentials.

To stop running bq commands from a service account, run the following command:

gcloud config unset auth/impersonate_service_account

Examples

You can find command-line examples throughout the How-to guides section of the BigQuery documentation. This section lists links to common command-line tasks such as creating, getting, listing, deleting, and modifying BigQuery resources.

Creating resources

For information about using the bq command-line tool to create resources, see the following:

• Creating a dataset
• Creating an empty table with a schema definition
• Creating a table from a query result
• Creating an ingestion-time partitioned table
• Creating a view

For examples of creating a table using a data file, see Loading data.

Getting information about resources

For information about using the bq command-line tool to get information about resources, see the following:

• Getting information about datasets
• Getting information about tables
• Getting information about views

Listing resources

For information about using the bq command-line tool to list resources, see the following:

• Listing datasets
• Listing tables
• Listing views

Listing jobs

For information about using the bq command-line tool to list jobs, see the following:

• Listing jobs

Updating resources

For information about using the bq command-line tool to update resources, see the following:

• Updating dataset properties
• Updating table properties
• Updating view properties

Loading data

For information about using the bq command-line tool to load data, see the following:

• Loading Avro data from Cloud Storage
• Loading JSON data from Cloud Storage
• Loading CSV data from Cloud Storage
• Loading data from a local file

Querying data

For information about using the bq command-line tool to query data, see the following:

• Running queries
• Writing query results
• Running parameterized queries

Using external data sources

For information about using the bq command-line tool to query data in external data sources, see the following:

• Creating a table definition using a JSON schema file
• Querying Bigtable data using permanent external tables
• Querying Cloud Storage data using permanent external tables
• Querying Google Drive data using permanent external tables

Exporting data

For information about using the bq command-line tool to export data, see the following:

• Exporting data stored in BigQuery

Using the BigQuery Data Transfer Service

For information about using the bq command-line tool with the BigQuery Data Transfer Service, see the following:

• Set up an Amazon S3 transfer
• Set up a Campaign Manager transfer
• Set up a Cloud Storage transfer
• Set up a Google Ad Manager transfer
• Set up a Google Ads transfer
• Set up a Google Merchant Center transfer (beta)
• Set up a Google Play transfer
• Set up a Search Ads 360 transfer (beta)
• Set up a YouTube Channel transfer
• Set up a YouTube Content Owner transfer
• Migrate data from Amazon Redshift
• Migrate data from Teradata

• Getting information about transfer configurations
• Listing transfer configurations
• Viewing the run history
• Viewing transfer run details and log messages
• Updating transfer configurations

Troubleshooting the bq command-line tool

This section shows you how to resolve issues with bq command-line tool.

Keep your gcloud CLI up to date

If you are using the bq command-line tool from the Google Cloud CLI, then make sure that you have the latest functionality and fixes for the bq command-line tool by keeping your gcloud CLI installation up to date. To see whether you are running the latest version of the gcloud CLI, enter the following command in Cloud Shell:

gcloud components list

The first two lines of the output display the version number of your current gcloud CLI installation and the version number of the most recent gcloud CLI. If you discover that your version is out of date, then you can update your gcloud CLI installation to the most recent version by entering the following command in Cloud Shell:

gcloud components update

Debugging

You can enter the following commands to debug the bq command-line tool:

• See requests sent and received. Add the --apilog=PATH_TO_FILE flag to save a log of operations to a local file. Replace PATH_TO_FILE with the path that you want to save the log to. The bq command-line tool works by making standard REST-based API calls, which can be useful to see. It's also useful to attach this log when you're reporting issues. Using - or stdout instead of a path prints the log to the Google Cloud console. Setting --apilog to stderr outputs to the standard error file. To log more requests, use the --httplib2_debuglevel=LOG_LEVEL flag. A higher LOG_LEVEL logs more information about the http requests.

• Troubleshoot errors. Enter the --format=prettyjson flag when getting a job's status or when viewing detailed information about resources such as tables and datasets. Using this flag outputs the response in JSON format, including the reason property. You can use the reason property to look up troubleshooting steps. For more information about any errors during the execution, use the --debug_mode flag.