Go hello world

This example is a very simple "hello world" application, written in Go, that illustrates how to:

  • Set up authentication
  • Connect to a Bigtable instance.
  • Create a new table.
  • Write data to the table.
  • Read the data back.
  • Delete the table.

Set up authentication

To use the Go samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

  1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

  2. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command: 

    gcloud init

  3. If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account: 

    gcloud auth application-default login

    You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

Running the sample

This example uses the Cloud Bigtable package of the Google Cloud Client Library for Go to communicate with Bigtable.

To run this sample program, follow the instructions for the sample on GitHub.

Using the Cloud Client Library with Bigtable

The sample application connects to Bigtable and demonstrates some simple operations.

Importing the client library

The sample uses the following imports: 

import (
	"context"
	"flag"
	"fmt"
	"log"

	"cloud.google.com/go/bigtable"
)

Connecting to Bigtable to manage tables

To manage tables, connect to Bigtable using bigtable.NewAdminClient().

adminClient, err := bigtable.NewAdminClient(ctx, *project, *instance)
if err != nil {
	log.Fatalf("Could not create admin client: %v", err)
}

Creating a table

Create a table with AdminClient.CreateTable(), then get information about the table with AdminClient.TableInfo(). Create a column family with AdminClient.CreateColumnFamily().

tables, err := adminClient.Tables(ctx)
if err != nil {
	log.Fatalf("Could not fetch table list: %v", err)
}

if !sliceContains(tables, tableName) {
	log.Printf("Creating table %s", tableName)
	if err := adminClient.CreateTable(ctx, tableName); err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Could not create table %s: %v", tableName, err)
	}
}

tblInfo, err := adminClient.TableInfo(ctx, tableName)
if err != nil {
	log.Fatalf("Could not read info for table %s: %v", tableName, err)
}

if !sliceContains(tblInfo.Families, columnFamilyName) {
	if err := adminClient.CreateColumnFamily(ctx, tableName, columnFamilyName); err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Could not create column family %s: %v", columnFamilyName, err)
	}
}

Connecting to Bigtable to manage data

To manage data, connect to Bigtable using bigtable.NewClient().

client, err := bigtable.NewClient(ctx, *project, *instance)
if err != nil {
	log.Fatalf("Could not create data operations client: %v", err)
}

Writing rows to a table

Open the table you want to write to. Use bigtable.NewMutation() to create a mutation on a single row, then use Mutation.Set() to set values in the row. Generate a unique row key for each row. Repeat these steps to create multiple mutations. Finally, use Table.ApplyBulk() to apply all of the mutations to your table.

tbl := client.Open(tableName)
muts := make([]*bigtable.Mutation, len(greetings))
rowKeys := make([]string, len(greetings))

log.Printf("Writing greeting rows to table")
for i, greeting := range greetings {
	muts[i] = bigtable.NewMutation()
	muts[i].Set(columnFamilyName, columnName, bigtable.Now(), []byte(greeting))

	// Each row has a unique row key.
	//
	// Note: This example uses sequential numeric IDs for simplicity, but
	// this can result in poor performance in a production application.
	// Since rows are stored in sorted order by key, sequential keys can
	// result in poor distribution of operations across nodes.
	//
	// For more information about how to design a Bigtable schema for the
	// best performance, see the documentation:
	//
	//     https://cloud.google.com/bigtable/docs/schema-design
	rowKeys[i] = fmt.Sprintf("%s%d", columnName, i)
}

rowErrs, err := tbl.ApplyBulk(ctx, rowKeys, muts)
if err != nil {
	log.Fatalf("Could not apply bulk row mutation: %v", err)
}
if rowErrs != nil {
	for _, rowErr := range rowErrs {
		log.Printf("Error writing row: %v", rowErr)
	}
	log.Fatalf("Could not write some rows")
}

Reading a row by its key

Get a row directly using its key with Table.ReadRow().

log.Printf("Getting a single greeting by row key:")
row, err := tbl.ReadRow(ctx, rowKeys[0], bigtable.RowFilter(bigtable.ColumnFilter(columnName)))
if err != nil {
	log.Fatalf("Could not read row with key %s: %v", rowKeys[0], err)
}
log.Printf("\t%s = %s\n", rowKeys[0], string(row[columnFamilyName][0].Value))

Scanning all table rows

Use Table.ReadRows() to scan all of the rows in a table. Close the data client when you are done using it.

log.Printf("Reading all greeting rows:")
err = tbl.ReadRows(ctx, bigtable.PrefixRange(columnName), func(row bigtable.Row) bool {
	item := row[columnFamilyName][0]
	log.Printf("\t%s = %s\n", item.Row, string(item.Value))
	return true
}, bigtable.RowFilter(bigtable.ColumnFilter(columnName)))

if err = client.Close(); err != nil {
	log.Fatalf("Could not close data operations client: %v", err)
}

Deleting a table

Delete a table with AdminClient.DeleteTable(). Close the admin client when you are done using it.

log.Printf("Deleting the table")
if err = adminClient.DeleteTable(ctx, tableName); err != nil {
	log.Fatalf("Could not delete table %s: %v", tableName, err)
}

if err = adminClient.Close(); err != nil {
	log.Fatalf("Could not close admin client: %v", err)
}

Putting it all together

Here is the full example without comments.


package main

import (
	"context"
	"flag"
	"fmt"
	"log"

	"cloud.google.com/go/bigtable"
)


const (
	tableName        = "Hello-Bigtable"
	columnFamilyName = "cf1"
	columnName       = "greeting"
)

var greetings = []string{"Hello World!", "Hello Cloud Bigtable!", "Hello golang!"}

func sliceContains(list []string, target string) bool {
	for _, s := range list {
		if s == target {
			return true
		}
	}
	return false
}

func main() {
	project := flag.String("project", "", "The Google Cloud Platform project ID. Required.")
	instance := flag.String("instance", "", "The Google Cloud Bigtable instance ID. Required.")
	flag.Parse()

	for _, f := range []string{"project", "instance"} {
		if flag.Lookup(f).Value.String() == "" {
			log.Fatalf("The %s flag is required.", f)
		}
	}

	ctx := context.Background()

	adminClient, err := bigtable.NewAdminClient(ctx, *project, *instance)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Could not create admin client: %v", err)
	}

	tables, err := adminClient.Tables(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Could not fetch table list: %v", err)
	}

	if !sliceContains(tables, tableName) {
		log.Printf("Creating table %s", tableName)
		if err := adminClient.CreateTable(ctx, tableName); err != nil {
			log.Fatalf("Could not create table %s: %v", tableName, err)
		}
	}

	tblInfo, err := adminClient.TableInfo(ctx, tableName)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Could not read info for table %s: %v", tableName, err)
	}

	if !sliceContains(tblInfo.Families, columnFamilyName) {
		if err := adminClient.CreateColumnFamily(ctx, tableName, columnFamilyName); err != nil {
			log.Fatalf("Could not create column family %s: %v", columnFamilyName, err)
		}
	}

	client, err := bigtable.NewClient(ctx, *project, *instance)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Could not create data operations client: %v", err)
	}

	tbl := client.Open(tableName)
	muts := make([]*bigtable.Mutation, len(greetings))
	rowKeys := make([]string, len(greetings))

	log.Printf("Writing greeting rows to table")
	for i, greeting := range greetings {
		muts[i] = bigtable.NewMutation()
		muts[i].Set(columnFamilyName, columnName, bigtable.Now(), []byte(greeting))

		rowKeys[i] = fmt.Sprintf("%s%d", columnName, i)
	}

	rowErrs, err := tbl.ApplyBulk(ctx, rowKeys, muts)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Could not apply bulk row mutation: %v", err)
	}
	if rowErrs != nil {
		for _, rowErr := range rowErrs {
			log.Printf("Error writing row: %v", rowErr)
		}
		log.Fatalf("Could not write some rows")
	}

	log.Printf("Getting a single greeting by row key:")
	row, err := tbl.ReadRow(ctx, rowKeys[0], bigtable.RowFilter(bigtable.ColumnFilter(columnName)))
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Could not read row with key %s: %v", rowKeys[0], err)
	}
	log.Printf("\t%s = %s\n", rowKeys[0], string(row[columnFamilyName][0].Value))

	log.Printf("Reading all greeting rows:")
	err = tbl.ReadRows(ctx, bigtable.PrefixRange(columnName), func(row bigtable.Row) bool {
		item := row[columnFamilyName][0]
		log.Printf("\t%s = %s\n", item.Row, string(item.Value))
		return true
	}, bigtable.RowFilter(bigtable.ColumnFilter(columnName)))

	if err = client.Close(); err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Could not close data operations client: %v", err)
	}

	log.Printf("Deleting the table")
	if err = adminClient.DeleteTable(ctx, tableName); err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Could not delete table %s: %v", tableName, err)
	}

	if err = adminClient.Close(); err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Could not close admin client: %v", err)
	}
}