View table snapshot metadata

This document describes how to view the metadata for a BigQuery table snapshot in the Google Cloud console, by querying the TABLE_SNAPSHOTS view of the INFORMATION_SCHEMA table, by using the bq show command, or by calling the tables.get API. It is intended for users who are familiar with BigQuery tables and table snapshots.

Permissions and roles

This section describes the Identity and Access Management (IAM) permission that you need to view the metadata for a table snapshot, and the predefined IAM roles that grant those permissions.

Permissions

To view a table snapshot's metadata, you need the following permission:

Permission Resource
bigquery.tables.get The table snapshot

Roles

The predefined BigQuery roles that provide the required permission are as follows:

Role Resource
Any of the following:

bigquery.metadataViewer
bigquery.dataViewer
bigquery.dataEditor
bigquery.dataOwner
bigquery.admin 		The table snapshot

Get a table snapshot's metadata

The metadata for a table snapshot is similar to the metadata for a standard table, with the following differences:

  • An additional baseTableReference field identifies the base table that the snapshot was taken from.
  • The type field has the value SNAPSHOT.

You can view the metadata for a table snapshot by using one of the following options:

Console

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the BigQuery page.

    Go to BigQuery

  2. In the Explorer pane, expand the project and dataset nodes of the table snapshot you want to look at.

  3. Click the name of the table snapshot.

  4. In the snapshot pane that appears, you can do the following:

    • Click the Schema tab to view the table snapshot's schema and policy tags.

    • Click the Details table to view the table snapshot's size, expiration, base table, snapshot time, and other information.

SQL

To see metadata for a table snapshot, query the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_SNAPSHOTS view:

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the BigQuery page.

    Go to BigQuery

  2. In the query editor, enter the following statement:

    SELECT
  *
FROM
  PROJECT_ID.DATASET_NAME.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_SNAPSHOTS
WHERE
  table_name = 'SNAPSHOT_NAME';

    Replace the following:

    • PROJECT_ID: the project ID of the project that contains the snapshot.
    • DATASET_NAME: the name of the dataset that contains the snapshot.
    • SNAPSHOT_NAME: the name of the snapshot.

  3. Click Run.

For more information about how to run queries, see Run an interactive query.

bq

Enter the following command in the Cloud Shell:

Go to Cloud Shell 

bq show \
--format=prettyjson \
PROJECT_ID:DATASET_NAME.SNAPSHOT_NAME

Replace the following:

  • PROJECT_ID: the project ID of the project that contains the snapshot.
  • DATASET_NAME: the name of the dataset that contains the snapshot.
  • SNAPSHOT_NAME: the name of the snapshot.

The output is similar to the following:

{
  "creationTime": "1593194331936",
   ...
  "snapshotDefinition": {
    "baseTableReference": {
      "datasetId": "myDataset",
      "projectId": "myProject",
      "tableId": "mytable"
    },
    "snapshotTime": "2020-06-26T17:58:50.815Z"
  },
  "tableReference": {
    "datasetId": "otherDataset",
    "projectId": "myProject",
    "tableId": "mySnapshot"
  },
  "type": "SNAPSHOT"
}

API

Call the tables.get method with the following parameters:

Parameter Value
projectId The project ID of the project that contains the snapshot.
datasetId The name of the dataset that contains the snapshot.
tableId The name of the snapshot.

The response body is similar to the following: 

{
  "kind": "bigquery#table",
  "etag": "...",
  "id": "myProject:myDataset.mySnapshot",
  "selfLink": "https://content-bigquery.googleapis.com/bigquery/v2/projects/myProject/datasets/myDataset/tables/mySnapshot",
  "tableReference": {
    "projectId": "myProject",
    "datasetId": "myDataset",
    "tableId": "mySnapshot"
  },
  "description": "...",
  "schema": {
    "fields": [
      ...
    ]
  },
  "numBytes": "637931",
  "numLongTermBytes": "0",
  "numRows": "33266",
  "creationTime": "1593194331936",
  "lastModifiedTime": "1593194331936",
  "type": "SNAPSHOT",
  "location": "US",
  "snapshotDefinition": {
    "baseTableReference": {
      "projectId": "myProject",
      "datasetId": "otherDataset",
      "tableId": "myTable"
    },
    "snapshotTime": "2020-06-26T17:58:50.815Z"
  }
}

What's next