SEARCH_INDEX_COLUMNS view

The INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SEARCH_INDEX_COLUMNS view contains one row for each search-indexed column on each table in a dataset.

Required permissions

To see search index metadata, you need the bigquery.tables.get or bigquery.tables.list Identity and Access Management (IAM) permission on the table with the index. Each of the following predefined IAM roles includes at least one of these permissions:

• roles/bigquery.admin
• roles/bigquery.dataEditor
• roles/bigquery.dataOwner
• roles/bigquery.dataViewer
• roles/bigquery.metadataViewer
• roles/bigquery.user

For more information about BigQuery permissions, see Access control with IAM.

Schema

When you query the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SEARCH_INDEX_COLUMNS view, the query results contain one row for each indexed column on each table in a dataset.

The INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SEARCH_INDEX_COLUMNS view has the following schema:

Column name	Data type	Value
index_catalog	STRING	The name of the project that contains the dataset.
index_schema	STRING	The name of the dataset that contains the index.
table_name	STRING	The name of the base table that the index is created on.
index_name	STRING	The name of the index.
index_column_name	STRING	The name of the top-level indexed column.
index_field_path	STRING	The full path of the expanded indexed field, starting with the column name. Fields are separated by a period.

Scope and syntax

Queries against this view must have a dataset qualifier. The following table explains the region scope for this view:

View Name	Resource scope	Region scope
[PROJECT_ID.]DATASET_ID.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SEARCH_INDEX_COLUMNS	Dataset level	Dataset location

Replace the following:

Optional: PROJECT_ID: the ID of your Google Cloud project. If not specified, the default project is used.

• DATASET_ID: the ID of your dataset. For more information, see Dataset qualifier.

Example

-- Returns metadata for search indexes in a single dataset.
SELECT * FROM myDataset.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SEARCH_INDEX_COLUMNS;

Examples

The following example creates a search index on all columns of my_table.

CREATE TABLE dataset.my_table(
  a STRING,
  b INT64,
  c STRUCT <d INT64,
            e ARRAY<STRING>,
            f STRUCT<g STRING, h INT64>>) AS
SELECT 'hello' AS a, 10 AS b, (20, ['x', 'y'], ('z', 30)) AS c;

CREATE SEARCH INDEX my_index
ON dataset.my_table(ALL COLUMNS);

The following query extracts information on which fields are indexed. The index_field_path indicates which field of a column is indexed. This differs from the index_column_name only in the case of a STRUCT, where the full path to the indexed field is given. In this example, column c contains an ARRAY<STRING> field e and another STRUCT called f which contains a STRING field g, each of which is indexed.

SELECT table_name, index_name, index_column_name, index_field_path
FROM my_project.dataset.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SEARCH_INDEX_COLUMNS

The result is similar to the following:

+------------+------------+-------------------+------------------+
| table_name | index_name | index_column_name | index_field_path |
+------------+------------+-------------------+------------------+
| my_table   | my_index   | a                 | a                |
| my_table   | my_index   | c                 | c.e              |
| my_table   | my_index   | c                 | c.f.g            |
+------------+------------+-------------------+------------------+

The following query joins the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SEARCH_INDEX_COUMNS view with the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SEARCH_INDEXES and INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS views to include the search index status and the data type of each column:

SELECT
  index_columns_view.index_catalog AS project_name,
  index_columns_view.index_SCHEMA AS dataset_name,
  indexes_view.TABLE_NAME AS table_name,
  indexes_view.INDEX_NAME AS index_name,
  indexes_view.INDEX_STATUS AS status,
  index_columns_view.INDEX_COLUMN_NAME AS column_name,
  index_columns_view.INDEX_FIELD_PATH AS field_path,
  columns_view.DATA_TYPE AS data_type
FROM
  mydataset.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SEARCH_INDEXES indexes_view
INNER JOIN
  mydataset.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SEARCH_INDEX_COLUMNS index_columns_view
  ON
    indexes_view.TABLE_NAME = index_columns_view.TABLE_NAME
    AND indexes_view.INDEX_NAME = index_columns_view.INDEX_NAME
LEFT OUTER JOIN
  mydataset.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS columns_view
  ON
    indexes_view.INDEX_CATALOG = columns_view.TABLE_CATALOG
    AND indexes_view.INDEX_SCHEMA = columns_view.TABLE_SCHEMA
    AND index_columns_view.TABLE_NAME = columns_view.TABLE_NAME
    AND index_columns_view.INDEX_COLUMN_NAME = columns_view.COLUMN_NAME
ORDER BY
  project_name,
  dataset_name,
  table_name,
  column_name;

The result is similar to the following:

+------------+------------+----------+------------+--------+-------------+------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| project    | dataset    | table    | index_name | status | column_name | field_path | data_type                                                     |
+------------+------------+----------+------------+--------+-------------+------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| my_project | my_dataset | my_table | my_index   | ACTIVE | a           | a          | STRING                                                        |
| my_project | my_dataset | my_table | my_index   | ACTIVE | c           | c.e        | STRUCT<d INT64, e ARRAY<STRING>, f STRUCT<g STRING, h INT64>> |
| my_project | my_dataset | my_table | my_index   | ACTIVE | c           | c.f.g      | STRUCT<d INT64, e ARRAY<STRING>, f STRUCT<g STRING, h INT64>> |
+------------+------------+----------+------------+--------+-------------+------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+