Get or create a table

Get table details if it exists, or autocreate a table if it does not exist.

Code sample

C++

To learn how to install and use the client library for Bigtable, see Bigtable client libraries.

To authenticate to Bigtable, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment. 

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

  google::bigtable::admin::v2::GetTableRequest r;
  r.set_name(table_name);
  r.set_view(google::bigtable::admin::v2::Table::FULL);

  StatusOr<google::bigtable::admin::v2::Table> table = admin.GetTable(r);
  if (!table &&
      table.status().code() == google::cloud::StatusCode::kNotFound) {
    // The table does not exist, try to create the table.
    table = admin.CreateTable(instance_name, table_id, {});
    if (!table) throw std::move(table).status();
    // The schema returned by a `CreateTable()` request does not include all
    // the metadata for a table, we need to explicitly request the rest:
    table = admin.GetTable(std::move(r));
  }
  if (!table) throw std::move(table).status();
  std::cout << "Table metadata: " << table->DebugString() << "\n";
}

What's next

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