Using the Cloud Console

The Google Cloud Console provides a graphical interface that you can use to create and manage BigQuery resources and run SQL queries.

See the Cloud Console quickstart for a working introduction to using the Cloud Console.

Note: The default experience is the Preview Cloud Console. This document describes the Preview experience. During the Preview stage, you can go to the Generally Available Cloud Console by clicking Hide preview features.

Before you begin

Before you can use the Cloud Console, you must create or select a Google Cloud project.

1. Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

2. In the Google Cloud Console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.

   Go to project selector

3. BigQuery is automatically enabled in new projects. To activate BigQuery in a preexisting project, go to Enable the BigQuery API.

   Enable the API

4. BigQuery provides a sandbox if you do not want to provide a credit card or enable billing for your project. The steps in this topic work for a project whether or not your project has billing enabled. If you optionally want to enable billing, see Learn how to enable billing.

Opening the BigQuery page in the Cloud Console

To open the BigQuery page in the Cloud Console:

1. Open the Cloud Console.

   Go to the Cloud Console

2. In the navigation menu, click BigQuery.

You can also open the BigQuery page directly by entering the following URL in your browser.

https://console.cloud.google.com/bigquery

Or, click here to open the BigQuery page in the Cloud Console directly using your most recently accessed project:

Go to the BigQuery page

Cloud Console overview

The Cloud Console has three main sections, shown in the following screenshot:

Navigation menu

The navigation menu contains a list of BigQuery resources that you can view:

• The SQL workspace section displays your datasets, tables, views, and other BigQuery resources. This is where you can create and run queries, work with tables and views, see your BigQuery job history, and perform other common BigQuery tasks.

• The Transfers section opens the BigQuery Data Transfer Service page.

• The Scheduled queries section displays your scheduled queries.

• The Reservations section displays slot commitments, reservations, and reservation assignments.

• The BI Engine section opens the BigQuery BI Engine page.

To collapse the navigation menu so that only the icons are visible, click Hide BigQuery navigation menu. To temporarily expand the menu again, hold the pointer over the menu. To expand the menu so that the labels remain visible, click Show BigQuery navigation menu.

Explorer panel

The Explorer panel is visible when you select SQL workspace in the navigation menu. This panel contains a list of your current project plus any pinned projects. To view the datasets that you have access to in a project, expand the project. To view tables, views, and functions in that dataset, expand the dataset.

You can also use the search box to search for resources by name (project, dataset, table, or view name) or search for resources by label. The search box finds the resources that match, or contain matches, within your current and pinned projects.

To use search and autocomplete powered by Data Catalog (beta), in the Try search and autocomplete powered by Data Catalog dialog, click Enable. With this feature enabled, BigQuery loads your results on demand for searches in the Explorer panel and for autocomplete in SQL queries. If you have a large number of resources, Data Catalog improves the Cloud Console's performance. It also lets you search for resources outside of your current and pinned projects.

Details panel

The details panel shows information about your BigQuery resources. When you select a dataset, table, view, or other resource in the Explorer panel, the Cloud Console opens a new tab in the details panel with information about the resource. From these tabs, you can create tables and views, modify table schemas, export data, and perform other actions.

Working with projects

All of your BigQuery work is done within a project. This project's name can be seen in the navigation panel below the filter datasets box. You can also view the current project by using the platform bar at the top of the page.

All of your work within the project is charged to the billing account attached to the project. For more information on BigQuery charges, see the pricing page.

Switching projects

To switch projects in the Cloud Console:

1. In the platform bar at the top of the page, click your project.

2. In the projects dialog, click the name of the project in the list. This replaces your previous project in the Cloud Console with the one you chose.

Pinning (adding) a project

You can add or pin a project in the Cloud Console. A pinned project is listed in the Explorer panel, where you can browse the datasets in the project.

Option 1: Open a project and pin it

To pin a project after opening it, follow these steps:

1. Switch to the project you want to pin.

2. In the Explorer panel, select the project name.

3. Pin the project using one of these options:

   • Next to the project name, click Pin .

   • In the details panel, click Pin project.

     

Option 2: Select from a list of projects

To pin a project by selecting from a list of projects, follow these steps:

1. In the Explorer panel, click Add data .

2. Click Pin a project.

3. In the dialog, click the name of a project.

Removing a project from the Cloud Console

To remove a pinned project, follow these steps:

1. In the Explorer panel, select the project name.

2. Unpin the project using one of these options:

   • Next to the project name, click Unpin .
   • In the details panel, click Unpin project.

Displaying resources

The Explorer panel lists datasets that you can browse in your current project or any projects that you pinned. To display the datasets in a project, click the Expand node icon next to the project name. To display the tables, views, and functions in a dataset, click the Expand node icon next to the dataset name.

To display information about a resource, click the name of the resource in the Explorer panel. Each resource that you select opens a new tab in the details panel. From there, you can perform operations on the resource, such as creating, deleting, sharing, or updating the resource. The set of available actions depends on the resource. For example, the following screenshot shows the tab for a table.

To run a query, in the details panel, click Compose new query. This action opens a new Editor tab where you can enter a SQL query. To run the query, click Run. For more information about querying tables, see Running interactive queries.

Working with tabs

Whenever you select a resource or click Compose new query, the Cloud Console opens a new tab in the details panel. If you have more than one tab open, you can split the tabs into two panes and view two tabs side-by-side.

To split tabs into two panes, follow these steps:

1. In the corner of any tab, click the Open menu icon.

2. To place the selected tab in the left pane, select Split tab to left. To place the selected tab in the right pane, select Split tab to right.

   Note: If only one tab is open, these menu items are unavailable.

The following image shows the SQL Explorer panel with two open tabs. One tab has a SQL query and the other tab shows details about a table.

To move a tab from one pane to the other pane, follow these steps:

1. In the corner of the tab, click the Open menu icon.

2. Select Move tab to right pane or Move tab to left pane.

To close all tabs except for one, follow these steps:

1. In the corner of the tab, click the Open menu icon.

2. Select Close other tabs.

Viewing job and query history

From the details panel, you can view your job and query history. A query is a type of job, but the query history is displayed separately, so that you can find your recent queries more easily.

To view your job history, click the Job history tab. To see the details of a job, select the job in the job history list. To repeat a load job, select the job and click Repeat load job.

To view your query history, click the Query history tab. To see the details of a query, select the query from the query history list. To edit the query or run it again, select the query and click Open query in editor.

The job and query histories in the Cloud Console include all load, export, copy, and query jobs that you submitted in the past 6 months (up to 1,000 entries). The limit of 1,000 jobs is cumulative across all job types.

Keyboard shortcuts

The following keyboard shortcuts are supported in the Cloud Console:

Key combination (Windows/Linux)	Key combination (Mac OS)	Action
Ctrl+Enter	Cmd+Enter	Run current query
Tab	Tab	Autocomplete current word
Ctrl	Cmd	Highlight table names
Ctrl+E	Cmd+E	Run query from selection
Ctrl+/	Cmd+/	Comment current or selected line(s)

Examples

You can find Cloud Console examples throughout the How-to guides section of the BigQuery documentation.

To see examples of loading data and querying data using the Cloud Console, see the Quickstart using the Cloud Console.

What's next

• See the Cloud Console quickstart for a working introduction to using the Cloud Console.