Create and manage tables

Console

To create a new table in an instance:

1. Open the list of Bigtable instances in the Google Cloud console.

   Open the instance list

2. Click the instance whose tables you want to view.

3. Click Tables in the left pane.

   The Tables page displays a list of tables in the instance.

4. Enter a table ID for the table.

5. Add column families (optional).

   You can add columns now or later. A table must have at least one column family before you can write data to it. A table must have at least one column family before you can write data to it or read a change stream from it.

6. Optional: Enable a change stream for the table. Before you enable a change stream, make sure that you understand the implications, including increased storage costs and app profile usage requirements. To review these details, see the Overview of change streams.

   1. Select Enable change stream.

   2. In the Expiration time field, enter a number from 1 to 7 to specify the number of days that the change stream data should be retained.

   3. Click Create.

7. Optional: If you don't want Bigtable to create a daily backup of the table, clear the checkbox next to Enable automated backup. For more information, see Use automated backup (Preview).

8. Click Create a table.

gcloud

To create a table, run the following command. See gcloud bigtable instances tables create for a complete list of options.

gcloud bigtable instances tables create TABLE_ID \
    --instance=INSTANCE_ID \
    --project=PROJECT_ID \
    --column-families=COLUMN-FAMILIES

Replace the following:

• TABLE_ID: a unique ID for the new table
• INSTANCE_ID: the ID of the instance
• PROJECT_ID: the project that will contain the new table
• COLUMN-FAMILIES: a comma-separated list of column family names. You can add more column families later.

Optional:

• To protect the table from deletion, append the command with --deletion-protection. If you do not apply this setting, the table can be deleted. You can also explicitly allow table deletion by appending --no-deletion-protection.

• To enable a change stream for the table, specify a retention period for the change stream data. Before you enable a change stream, make sure that you understand the implications, including increased storage costs and app profile usage requirements. To review these details, see the Overview of change streams.

  --change-stream-retention-period=RETENTION_PERIOD
  

  Replace RETENTION_PERIOD with the length of time that Bigtable should retain change stream data for the table. The time must be from one to seven days. Acceptable units are days (d), hours (h), minutes (m), and seconds (s). Examples: 48h or 6d

• To let Bigtable create a daily backup of your table, enable automated backup (Preview):

  gcloud bigtable instances tables create TABLE_ID \
      --instance=INSTANCE_ID \
      --project=PROJECT_ID \
      --column-families=COLUMN-FAMILIES \
      --enable-automated-backup
  

cbt

Use the following command, replacing TABLE_NAME with the name of your table. You can't use the cbt CLI to create a table with a change stream enabled.

cbt createtable TABLE_ID

Optional: To create an aggregate column family in the table, append the column family name with the aggregation type. The following creates an aggregate column family with a garbage collection policy of never.

cbt createtable TABLE_ID families=FAMILY_NAME:never:TYPE

Replace the following:

• TABLE_ID: a unique ID for the new table
• FAMILY_NAME: : a comma-separated list of column family names. You can add more column families later.
• TYPE: the aggregate type. Must be intsum, intmin, intmax, or inthll.

Console

You are not able to pre-split the rows when you create a table using the Google Cloud console.

gcloud

To split a table by row key, run the following command. See gcloud bigtable instances tables create for a complete list of options.

gcloud bigtable instances tables create TABLE_ID\
    --instance=INSTANCE_ID \
    --project=PROJECT_ID \
    --column-families=COLUMN-FAMILIES \
    --splits=SPLITS

Replace the following:

• TABLE_ID: a unique ID for the new table
• INSTANCE_ID: the ID of the instance
• PROJECT_ID: the project that will contain the new table
• COLUMN-FAMILIES: a comma-separated list of column family names. You can add more column families later.
• SPLITS: the row keys where the table should initially be split—for example, 10,20.

cbt

To pre-split a table based on the row key, use the following syntax to create the table. Replace [TABLE_NAME] with the table name and [SPLITS] with a comma-separated list of row-key prefixes to use for the pre-splits.

```
cbt createtable [TABLE_NAME] splits=[SPLITS]
```

For example, to pre-split the table my-table at row keys that begin with 10 and 20:

```
cbt createtable my-table splits=10,20
```

Console

1. Open the list of Bigtable instances in the Google Cloud console.

   Open the instance list

2. Click the instance whose tables you want to view.

3. Click Tables in the left pane.

   The Tables page displays a list of tables in the instance.

4. Click edit Edit for the table that you want to modify.

5. For each column family that you want to add, complete the following:

   1. Click Add column family.
   2. Provide a unique identifier for the column family.
   3. Set the garbage collection policy for the column family.
   4. Click Done.
   5. Click Save.

gcloud

You can't use the gcloud CLI to add column families to a table.

cbt

To add a column family to a table, use the following command:

cbt createfamily TABLE_ID FAMILY_NAME

For example, to add the column families cf1 and cf2 to the table my-table:

cbt createfamily my-table cf1
cbt createfamily my-table cf2

Optional: To add an aggregate column family to the table, append the column family name with the aggregation type. The following creates a table that has an aggregate column family with a garbage collection policy of never.

cbt createfamily TABLE_ID FAMILY_NAME:never:TYPE

Replace the following:

• TABLE_ID: the table ID
• FAMILY_NAME: : a comma-separated list of column family names. You can add more column families later.
• TYPE: the aggregation type. Must be intsum, intmin, intmax, or inthll.

Console

1. Open the list of Bigtable instances in the Google Cloud console.

   Open the instance list

2. Click the instance whose tables you want to view.

3. Click Tables in the left pane.

   The Tables page displays a list of tables in the instance.

4. Click edit Edit for the table that you want to modify.

5. For each column family that you want to delete, complete the following:

   1. Mouse over the row for the column family that you want to delete.
   2. Click delete.

6. Click Save.

7. To confirm that you understand that deleting a column family is permanent and that all data in the column family will be deleted, type "Delete column families" in the text field.

8. Click Confirm.

gcloud

You can't use the gcloud CLI to delete column families from a table.

cbt

To delete a column family from a table, use the following command, replacing [TABLE_NAME] with the table name and [FAMILY_NAME] with the column family name:

cbt deletefamily [TABLE_NAME] [FAMILY_NAME]

For example, to delete the column family cf2 from the table my-table:

cbt deletefamily my-table cf2

Console

To view a list of tables in an instance:

1. Open the list of Bigtable instances in the Google Cloud console.

   Open the instance list

2. Click the instance whose tables you want to view.

3. Click Tables in the left pane.

   The Tables page displays a list of tables in the instance.

   • Click the arrow next to the table ID to expand a list of replications of the table.
   • Click View Metrics next to a table name to view monitoring data for the table.

gcloud

To view a list of tables, run the gcloud bigtable instances tables list command.

gcloud bigtable instances tables list --instances=INSTANCE_IDS

Replace the following:

• INSTANCE_IDS: a comma-separated list of instance IDs.

cbt

To view a list of tables in an instance, run the following command:

    cbt ls INSTANCE_ID

Replace the following:

• INSTANCE_ID: The permanent identifier for the instance.

C++

namespace cbt = ::google::cloud::bigtable;
namespace cbta = ::google::cloud::bigtable_admin;
using ::google::cloud::StreamRange;
[](cbta::BigtableTableAdminClient admin, std::string const& project_id,
   std::string const& instance_id) {
  std::string instance_name = cbt::InstanceName(project_id, instance_id);

  google::bigtable::admin::v2::ListTablesRequest r;
  r.set_parent(instance_name);
  r.set_view(google::bigtable::admin::v2::Table::NAME_ONLY);

  StreamRange<google::bigtable::admin::v2::Table> tables =
      admin.ListTables(std::move(r));
  for (auto& table : tables) {
    if (!table) throw std::move(table).status();
    std::cout << table->name() << "\n";
  }
}

C#

// Lists tables in intance.
// Initialize request argument(s).
ListTablesRequest request = new ListTablesRequest
{
    ParentAsInstanceName = s_instanceName
};
try
{
    // Make the request.
    PagedEnumerable<ListTablesResponse, Table> response = bigtableTableAdminClient.ListTables(request);

}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Error listing tables {ex.Message}");
}

Java

// Lists tables in the current instance.
try {
  List<String> tableIds = adminClient.listTables();
  for (String tableId : tableIds) {
    System.out.println(tableId);
  }
} catch (NotFoundException e) {
  System.err.println("Failed to list tables from a non-existent instance: " + e.getMessage());
}

Node.js

// List tables in current project
const [tables] = await instance.getTables();
tables.forEach(table => {
  console.log(table.id);
});

PHP

use Google\Cloud\Bigtable\Admin\V2\Client\BigtableInstanceAdminClient;
use Google\Cloud\Bigtable\Admin\V2\Client\BigtableTableAdminClient;
use Google\Cloud\Bigtable\Admin\V2\ListTablesRequest;

/**
 * List tables in an instance
 *
 * @param string $projectId The Google Cloud project ID
 * @param string $instanceId The ID of the Bigtable instance
 */
function list_tables(
    string $projectId,
    string $instanceId
): void {
    $instanceAdminClient = new BigtableInstanceAdminClient();
    $tableAdminClient = new BigtableTableAdminClient();

    $instanceName = $instanceAdminClient->instanceName($projectId, $instanceId);

    printf('Listing Tables:' . PHP_EOL);
    $listTablesRequest = (new ListTablesRequest())
        ->setParent($instanceName);
    $tables = $tableAdminClient->listTables($listTablesRequest)->iterateAllElements();
    $tables = iterator_to_array($tables);
    if (empty($tables)) {
        print('No table exists.' . PHP_EOL);
        return;
    }
    foreach ($tables as $table) {
        print($table->getName() . PHP_EOL);
    }
}

Python

tables = instance.list_tables()
print("Listing tables in current project...")
if tables != []:
    for tbl in tables:
        print(tbl.table_id)
else:
    print("No table exists in current project...")

Ruby

# instance_id = "my-instance"
bigtable.tables(instance_id).all.each do |t|
  puts "Table: #{t.name}"
end

Console

To view information about a table:

1. Open the list of Bigtable instances in the Google Cloud console.

   Open the instance list

2. Click the instance whose tables you want to view.

3. Click Tables in the left pane.

   The Tables page displays a list of tables in the instance. For each table, the Google Cloud console displays the number of clusters that the table is stored on, the table's status, storage utilization, and the identifiers for any current backups of the table.

4. To view column family names for the table, click edit. To close the Edit table pane, click Cancel.

5. To view additional details about the table, including table-level metrics and replication state, click the name of the table.

gcloud

To view information about a table, run the gcloud bigtable instances tables describe command.

gcloud bigtable instances tables describe TABLE_ID \
    --instance=INSTANCE_ID

Replace the following:

• TABLE_ID: a unique ID of the table
• INSTANCE_ID: the ID of the instance

cbt

You can use the cbt CLI to get a list of existing column families in a table.

Use the following command, replacing [TABLE_NAME] with the table name:

cbt ls [TABLE_NAME]

Console

1. Open the list of Bigtable instances in the Google Cloud console.

   Open the instance list

2. Click the instance whose tables you want to view.

3. Click Tables in the left pane.

   The Tables page displays a list of tables in the instance.

4. Click more_vert for the table that you want to delete.

5. Click Delete.

6. To confirm that you acknowledge that this action will delete the table from all clusters in the instance and that you have only seven days to undelete the table, type the table ID in the text box.

7. Click Delete.

gcloud

1. To delete tables, run the gcloud bigtable instances tables delete command.

   gcloud bigtable instances tables delete --instance=INSTANCE_ID
   

   Replace the following:

   • INSTANCE_ID: the ID of the instance

2. In the terminal, enter y to confirm table deletion.

cbt

To delete a table, use the following command, replacing [TABLE_NAME] with the table name:

cbt deletetable [TABLE_NAME]

Console

1. Open the list of Bigtable instances in the Google Cloud console.

   Open the instance list

2. Click the instance whose tables you want to view.

3. Click Tables in the left pane.

   The Tables page displays a list of tables in the instance.

4. Click more_vert next to the table ID.

5. To enable deletion protection, click Prevent deletion. To disable deletion protection, click Enable deletion. Only the valid option is visible.

gcloud

To enable deletion protection for a table, run the gcloud bigtable instances table update command:

gcloud bigtable instances tables update TABLE_ID \
    --instance=INSTANCE_ID \
    --deletion-protection

To disable deletion protection for a table, run the following:

gcloud bigtable instances tables update TABLE_ID \
    --instance=INSTANCE_ID \
    --no-deletion-protection

Replace the following:

+ TABLE_ID: the unique identifier for the table
+ INSTANCE_ID: the ID of the instance

cbt

You are not able to use the cbt CLI to enable or disable deletion protection.