Query Cloud Storage data in BigLake tables

This document describes how to query data stored in a Cloud Storage BigLake table.

Before you begin

Ensure that you have a Cloud Storage BigLake table.

Required roles

To query Cloud Storage BigLake tables, ensure you have the following roles:

BigQuery Data Viewer (roles/bigquery.dataViewer)
BigQuery User (roles/bigquery.user)

Depending on your permissions, you can grant these roles to yourself or ask your administrator to grant them to you. For more information about granting roles, see Viewing the grantable roles on resources.

To see the exact permissions that are required to query Cloud Storage BigLake tables, expand the Required permissions section:

Required permissions

bigquery.jobs.create
bigquery.readsessions.create (Only required if you are reading data with the BigQuery Storage Read API)
bigquery.tables.get
bigquery.tables.getData

You might also be able to get these permissions with custom roles or other predefined roles

Query BigLake tables

After creating a Cloud Storage BigLake table, you can query it using GoogleSQL syntax, the same as if it were a standard BigQuery table. For example, SELECT field1, field2 FROM mydataset.my_cloud_storage_table;.

Query BigLake tables using external data processing tools

You can use BigQuery connectors with other data processing tools to access BigLake tables on Cloud Storage. For more information, see Connectors.

Apache Spark

The following example uses Dataproc, but it also works with any Spark deployment that uses the Spark-BigQuery connector.

In this example, you supply the Spark-BigQuery connector as an initialization action when you create a cluster. This action lets you use a Zeppelin notebook and exercise the data analyst user journey.

Spark-BigQuery connector versions are listed in the GitHub GoogleCloudDataproc/spark-bigquery-connector repository.

Create a single node cluster using the initialization action for the Spark-BigQuery connector:

gcloud dataproc clusters create biglake-demo-cluster \
    --optional-components=ZEPPELIN \
    --region=REGION \
    --enable-component-gateway \
    --single-node \
    --initialization-actions gs://goog-dataproc-initialization-actions-REGION/connectors/connectors.sh \
    --metadata spark-bigquery-connector-url= gs://spark-lib/bigquery/spark-bigquery-with-dependencies_SCALA_VERSION-CONNECTOR_VERSION.jar

Apache Hive

The following example uses Dataproc, but it also works with any Hive deployment that uses the Hive-BigQuery connector.

In this example, you supply the Hive-BigQuery connector as an initialization action when you create a cluster.

Hive-BigQuery connector versions are listed in the GitHub GoogleCloudDataproc/hive-bigquery-connector repository.

Create a single node cluster using the initialization action for the Hive-BigQuery connector:

gcloud dataproc clusters create biglake-hive-demo-cluster \
    --region=REGION \
    --single-node \
    --initialization-actions gs://goog-dataproc-initialization-actions-REGION/connectors/connectors.sh \
    --metadata hive-bigquery-connector-url=gs://goog-dataproc-artifacts-REGION/hive-bigquery/hive-bigquery-connector-CONNECTOR_VERSION.jar

For more information about the Hive-BigQuery connector, see Use the Hive-BigQuery Connector.

Dataflow

To read BigLake tables from Dataflow, use the Dataflow connector in DIRECT_READ mode to use the BigQuery Storage API. Reading from a query string is also supported. See BigQuery I/O in the Apache Beam documentation.

Query temporary BigLake tables

Querying an external data source using a temporary table is useful for one-time, ad-hoc queries over external data, or for extract, transform, and load (ETL) processes.

To query an external data source without creating a permanent table, you provide a table definition for the temporary table, and then use that table definition in a command or call to query the temporary table. You can provide the table definition in any of the following ways:

A table definition file
An inline schema definition
A JSON schema file

The table definition file or supplied schema is used to create the temporary external table, and the query runs against the temporary external table.

When you use a temporary external table, you do not create a table in one of your BigQuery datasets. Because the table is not permanently stored in a dataset, it cannot be shared with others.

You can create and query a temporary table linked to an external data source by using the bq command-line tool, the API, or the client libraries.

bq

Use the bq query command with the --external_table_definition flag.

(Optional) Supply the --location flag and set the value to your location.

To query a temporary table linked to your external data source using a table definition file, enter the following command.

bq --location=LOCATION query \
--external_table_definition=TABLE::DEFINITION_FILE \
'QUERY'

Replace the following:

LOCATION: the name of your location. The --location flag is optional. For example, if you are using BigQuery in the Tokyo region, you can set the flag's value to asia-northeast1. You can set a default value for the location using the .bigqueryrc file.
TABLE: the name of the temporary table you're creating.
DEFINITION_FILE: the path to the table definition file on your local machine.
QUERY: the query you're submitting to the temporary table.

For example, the following command creates and queries a temporary table named sales using a table definition file named sales_def.

bq query \
--external_table_definition=sales::[email protected] \
'SELECT
  Region,
  Total_sales
FROM
  sales'

To query a temporary table linked to your external data source using an inline schema definition, enter the following command.

bq --location=LOCATION query \
--external_table_definition=TABLE::SCHEMA@SOURCE_FORMAT=BUCKET_PATH@projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/REGION/connections/CONNECTION_ID \
'query'

Replace the following:

LOCATION: the name of your location. The --location flag is optional. For example, if you are using BigQuery in the Tokyo region, you can set the flag's value to asia-northeast1. You can set a default value for the location using the .bigqueryrc file.
TABLE: the name of the temporary table you're creating.
SCHEMA: the inline schema definition in the format field:data_type,field:data_type.
SOURCE_FORMAT: the format of the external data source, for example, CSV.
BUCKET_PATH: the path to the Cloud Storage bucket that contains the data for the table, in the format gs://bucket_name/[folder_name/]file_pattern.

You can select multiple files from the bucket by specifying one asterisk (*) wildcard character in the file_pattern. For example, gs://mybucket/file00*.parquet. For more information, see Wildcard support for Cloud Storage URIs.

You can specify multiple buckets for the uris option by providing multiple paths.

The following examples show valid uris values:
- gs://bucket/path1/myfile.csv
- gs://bucket/path1/*.parquet
- gs://bucket/path1/file1*, gs://bucket1/path1/*
When you specify uris values that target multiple files, all of those files must share a compatible schema.

For more information about using Cloud Storage URIs in BigQuery, see Cloud Storage resource path.
PROJECT_ID: the project that contains the connection.
REGION: the region that contains the connection—for example, us.
CONNECTION_ID: the name of the connection—for example, myconnection.
QUERY: the query you're submitting to the temporary table.

For example, the following command creates and queries a temporary table named sales linked to a CSV file stored in Cloud Storage with the following schema definition: Region:STRING,Quarter:STRING,Total_sales:INTEGER.

bq query \
--external_table_definition=sales::Region:STRING,Quarter:STRING,Total_sales:INTEGER@CSV=gs://mybucket/[email protected] \
'SELECT
  Region,
  Total_sales
FROM
  sales'

To query a temporary table linked to your external data source using a JSON schema file, enter the following command.

bq --location=LOCATION query \
--external_table_definition=SCHEMA_FILE@SOURCE_FORMAT=BUCKET_PATH@projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/REGION/connections/CONNECTION_ID \
'QUERY'

Replace the following:

LOCATION: the name of your location. The --location flag is optional. For example, if you are using BigQuery in the Tokyo region, you can set the flag's value to asia-northeast1. You can set a default value for the location using the .bigqueryrc file.
SCHEMA_FILE: the path to the JSON schema file on your local machine.
SOURCE_FORMAT: the format of the external data source, for example, CSV.
BUCKET_PATH: the path to the Cloud Storage bucket that contains the data for the table, in the format gs://bucket_name/[folder_name/]file_pattern.

You can select multiple files from the bucket by specifying one asterisk (*) wildcard character in the file_pattern. For example, gs://mybucket/file00*.parquet. For more information, see Wildcard support for Cloud Storage URIs.

You can specify multiple buckets for the uris option by providing multiple paths.

The following examples show valid uris values:
- gs://bucket/path1/myfile.csv
- gs://bucket/path1/*.parquet
- gs://bucket/path1/file1*, gs://bucket1/path1/*
When you specify uris values that target multiple files, all of those files must share a compatible schema.

For more information about using Cloud Storage URIs in BigQuery, see Cloud Storage resource path.
PROJECT_ID: the project that contains the connection.
REGION: the region that contains the connection—for example, us.
CONNECTION_ID: the name of the connection—for example, myconnection.
QUERY: the query you're submitting to the temporary table.

For example, the following command creates and queries a temporary table named sales linked to a CSV file stored in Cloud Storage using the /tmp/sales_schema.json schema file.

  bq query \
  --external_table_definition=sales::/tmp/sales_schema.json@CSV=gs://mybucket/[email protected] \
  'SELECT
      Region,
      Total_sales
    FROM
      sales'

API

To run a query using the API, follow these steps:

Create a Job object.
Populate the configuration section of the Job object with a JobConfiguration object.
Populate the query section of the JobConfiguration object with a JobConfigurationQuery object.
Populate the tableDefinitions section of the JobConfigurationQuery object with an ExternalDataConfiguration object. Specify the connection to use for connecting to Cloud Storage in the connectionId field.
Call the jobs.insert method to run the query asynchronously or the jobs.query method to run the query synchronously, passing in the Job object.

What's next

Learn about using SQL in BigQuery.
Learn about BigLake tables.
Learn about BigQuery quotas.