Create and manage tables

This page explains how to create and perform operations on Bigtable tables using the Google Cloud console, the Google Cloud CLI, or the cbt CLI .

The cbt CLI supports several commands that are not described on this page. See the cbt reference for a complete list of commands.

You can also create and manage tables programmatically with the Cloud Bigtable client libraries or service APIs.

For instructions about creating and managing authorized views of a table, see authorized views.

Before you begin

If you plan to work with your tables using command-line tools, follow the steps in this section.

1. Install the gcloud CLI.

2. Optional: If you plan to use the cbt CLI , follow the instructions at Installing the cbt CLI , including the step to create a .cbtrc file.

   The cbt CLI instructions on this page assume that you have set the project ID and instance ID in your .cbtrc file. Alternatively, you can use the -project and -instance flags to set these values each time you run a cbt CLI command.

Create a table

Preview — Automated backup

This feature is subject to the "Pre-GA Offerings Terms" in the General Service Terms section of the Service Specific Terms. Pre-GA features are available "as is" and might have limited support. For more information, see the launch stage descriptions.

When you create a table, you do not need to specify the column families to use in the table. You can add or delete column families later.

Console

To create a new table in an instance:

1. Open the list of Bigtable instances in the Google Cloud console.

   Open the instance list

2. Click the instance whose tables you want to view.

3. Click Tables in the left pane.

   The Tables page displays a list of tables in the instance.

4. Enter a table ID for the table.

5. Add column families (optional).

   You can add columns now or later. A table must have at least one column family before you can write data to it. A table must have at least one column family before you can write data to it or read a change stream from it.

6. Optional: Enable a change stream for the table. Before you enable a change stream, make sure that you understand the implications, including increased storage costs and app profile usage requirements. To review these details, see the Overview of change streams.

   1. Select Enable change stream.

   2. In the Expiration time field, enter a number from 1 to 7 to specify the number of days that the change stream data should be retained.

   3. Click Create.

7. Optional: If you don't want Bigtable to create a daily backup of the table, clear the checkbox next to Enable automated backup. For more information, see Use automated backup (Preview).

8. Click Create a table.

gcloud

Preview — Automated backup

This feature is subject to the "Pre-GA Offerings Terms" in the General Service Terms section of the Service Specific Terms. Pre-GA features are available "as is" and might have limited support. For more information, see the launch stage descriptions.

To create a table, run the following command. See gcloud bigtable instances tables create for a complete list of options.

gcloud bigtable instances tables create TABLE_ID \
    --instance=INSTANCE_ID \
    --project=PROJECT_ID \
    --column-families=COLUMN-FAMILIES

Replace the following:

• TABLE_ID: a unique ID for the new table
• INSTANCE_ID: the ID of the instance
• PROJECT_ID: the project that will contain the new table
• COLUMN-FAMILIES: a comma-separated list of column family names. You can add more column families later.

Optional:

• To protect the table from deletion, append the command with --deletion-protection. If you do not apply this setting, the table can be deleted. You can also explicitly allow table deletion by appending --no-deletion-protection.

• To enable a change stream for the table, specify a retention period for the change stream data. Before you enable a change stream, make sure that you understand the implications, including increased storage costs and app profile usage requirements. To review these details, see the Overview of change streams.

  --change-stream-retention-period=RETENTION_PERIOD
  

  Replace RETENTION_PERIOD with the length of time that Bigtable should retain change stream data for the table. The time must be from one to seven days. Acceptable units are days (d), hours (h), minutes (m), and seconds (s). Examples: 48h or 6d

• To let Bigtable create a daily backup of your table and retain each backup for the default retention period of seven days, use the --enable-automated-backup flag when you create your table.

  gcloud bigtable instances tables create TABLE_ID \
      --instance=INSTANCE_ID \
      --project=PROJECT_ID \
      --column-families=COLUMN-FAMILIES \
      --enable-automated-backup
  

  To configure a different retention period, use the --automated-backup-retention-period flag instead of the --enable-automated-backup flag and provide a value up to 90 days, expressed as a number with a unit of m, h, or d (minutes, hours, or days), such as 15d for 15 days.

cbt

Use the following command, replacing TABLE_NAME with the name of your table. You can't use the cbt CLI to create a table with a change stream enabled.

cbt createtable TABLE_ID

Optional: To create an aggregate column family in the table, append the column family name with the aggregation type. The following creates an aggregate column family with a garbage collection policy of never.

cbt createtable TABLE_ID families=FAMILY_NAME:never:TYPE

Replace the following:

• TABLE_ID: a unique ID for the new table
• FAMILY_NAME: : a comma-separated list of column family names. You can add more column families later.
• TYPE: the aggregate type. Must be intsum, intmin, intmax, or inthll.

For more options, see Create a table in the cbt CLI reference.

If you have mistakenly deleted a table, don't attempt to manually create the deleted table. Use the gcloud CLI command bigtable instances tables undelete to recover the table.

Optional: Split the table by row key

Key Point: You can specify table splits only when creating a new table, and those specified splits remain for about 24 hours.

To optimize performance, Bigtable continuously splits tables across multiple nodes, evenly distributing the amount of data stored on each node, and keeping frequently accessed rows spread apart where possible. This ongoing process is automatic.

When you create a new table, you can specify initial table splits. Bigtable splits the table at the row keys that you provide. If the key spaces are too big, Bigtable further splits the table. The initial splits are maintained for about 24 hours after the table creation is complete. You can provide up to 100 row keys where the initial splits should occur.

For example, you might designate specific rows to pre-split your table if you're about to write many rows to the table.

Pre-splitting your table is not essential, but it is beneficial because it provides Bigtable information about where the load and data footprint are likely to land when the table is created. The pre-split prevents Bigtable from having to split the tables and rebalance the load all at once as the data arrives.

Console

You are not able to pre-split the rows when you create a table using the Google Cloud console.

gcloud

To split a table by row key, run the following command. See gcloud bigtable instances tables create for a complete list of options.

gcloud bigtable instances tables create TABLE_ID\
    --instance=INSTANCE_ID \
    --project=PROJECT_ID \
    --column-families=COLUMN-FAMILIES \
    --splits=SPLITS

Replace the following:

• TABLE_ID: a unique ID for the new table
• INSTANCE_ID: the ID of the instance
• PROJECT_ID: the project that will contain the new table
• COLUMN-FAMILIES: a comma-separated list of column family names. You can add more column families later.
• SPLITS: the row keys where the table should initially be split—for example, 10,20.

cbt

To pre-split a table based on the row key, use the following syntax to create the table. Replace [TABLE_NAME] with the table name and [SPLITS] with a comma-separated list of row-key prefixes to use for the pre-splits.

```
cbt createtable [TABLE_NAME] splits=[SPLITS]
```

For example, to pre-split the table my-table at row keys that begin with 10 and 20:

```
cbt createtable my-table splits=10,20
```

Modify column families in a table

You can add column families in an existing table. If the table does not have deletion protection enabled, then you can delete column families in the table.

Add column families

Console

1. Open the list of Bigtable instances in the Google Cloud console.

   Open the instance list

2. Click the instance whose tables you want to view.

3. Click Tables in the left pane.

   The Tables page displays a list of tables in the instance.

4. Click Edit for the table that you want to modify.

5. For each column family that you want to add, complete the following:

   1. Click Add column family.
   2. Provide a unique identifier for the column family.
   3. Set the garbage collection policy for the column family.
   4. Click Done.
   5. Click Save.

gcloud

You can't use the gcloud CLI to add column families to a table.

cbt

To add a column family to a table, use the following command:

cbt createfamily TABLE_ID FAMILY_NAME

For example, to add the column families cf1 and cf2 to the table my-table:

cbt createfamily my-table cf1
cbt createfamily my-table cf2

Optional: To add an aggregate column family to the table, append the column family name with the aggregation type. The following creates a table that has an aggregate column family with a garbage collection policy of never.

cbt createfamily TABLE_ID FAMILY_NAME:never:TYPE

Replace the following:

• TABLE_ID: the table ID
• FAMILY_NAME: : a comma-separated list of column family names. You can add more column families later.
• TYPE: the aggregation type. Must be intsum, intmin, intmax, or inthll.

Delete column families

You can delete column families in a table that does not have deletion protection enabled.

Warning: When you delete a column family, you also delete the data stored in that column family. Deleting a column family can't be undone.

Console

1. Open the list of Bigtable instances in the Google Cloud console.

   Open the instance list

2. Click the instance whose tables you want to view.

3. Click Tables in the left pane.

   The Tables page displays a list of tables in the instance.

4. Click Edit for the table that you want to modify.

5. For each column family that you want to delete, complete the following:

   1. Mouse over the row for the column family that you want to delete.
   2. Click .

6. Click Save.

7. To confirm that you understand that deleting a column family is permanent and that all data in the column family will be deleted, type "Delete column families" in the text field.

8. Click Confirm.

gcloud

You can't use the gcloud CLI to delete column families from a table.

cbt

To delete a column family from a table, use the following command, replacing [TABLE_NAME] with the table name and [FAMILY_NAME] with the column family name:

cbt deletefamily [TABLE_NAME] [FAMILY_NAME]

For example, to delete the column family cf2 from the table my-table:

cbt deletefamily my-table cf2

View a list of tables

Console

To view a list of tables in an instance:

1. Open the list of Bigtable instances in the Google Cloud console.

   Open the instance list

2. Click the instance whose tables you want to view.

3. Click Tables in the left pane.

   The Tables page displays a list of tables in the instance.

   • Click the arrow next to the table ID to expand a list of replications of the table.
   • Click View Metrics next to a table name to view monitoring data for the table.

gcloud

To view a list of tables, run the gcloud bigtable instances tables list command.

gcloud bigtable instances tables list --instances=INSTANCE_IDS

Replace the following:

• INSTANCE_IDS: a comma-separated list of instance IDs.

cbt

To view a list of tables in an instance, run the following command:

    cbt ls INSTANCE_ID

Replace the following:

• INSTANCE_ID: The permanent identifier for the instance.

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::StreamRange;
[](cbta::BigtableTableAdminClient admin, std::string const& project_id,
   std::string const& instance_id) {
  std::string instance_name = cbt::InstanceName(project_id, instance_id);

  google::bigtable::admin::v2::ListTablesRequest r;
  r.set_parent(instance_name);
  r.set_view(google::bigtable::admin::v2::Table::NAME_ONLY);

  StreamRange<google::bigtable::admin::v2::Table> tables =
      admin.ListTables(std::move(r));
  for (auto& table : tables) {
    if (!table) throw std::move(table).status();
    std::cout << table->name() << "\n";
  }
}

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.

// Lists tables in intance.
// Initialize request argument(s).
ListTablesRequest request = new ListTablesRequest
{
    ParentAsInstanceName = s_instanceName
};
try
{
    // Make the request.
    PagedEnumerable<ListTablesResponse, Table> response = bigtableTableAdminClient.ListTables(request);

}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Error listing tables {ex.Message}");
}

Java

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.

// Lists tables in the current instance.
try {
  List<String> tableIds = adminClient.listTables();
  for (String tableId : tableIds) {
    System.out.println(tableId);
  }
} catch (NotFoundException e) {
  System.err.println("Failed to list tables from a non-existent instance: " + e.getMessage());
}

Node.js

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.

// List tables in current project
const [tables] = await instance.getTables();
tables.forEach(table => {
  console.log(table.id);
});

PHP

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.

use Google\Cloud\Bigtable\Admin\V2\Client\BigtableInstanceAdminClient;
use Google\Cloud\Bigtable\Admin\V2\Client\BigtableTableAdminClient;
use Google\Cloud\Bigtable\Admin\V2\ListTablesRequest;

/**
 * List tables in an instance
 *
 * @param string $projectId The Google Cloud project ID
 * @param string $instanceId The ID of the Bigtable instance
 */
function list_tables(
    string $projectId,
    string $instanceId
): void {
    $instanceAdminClient = new BigtableInstanceAdminClient();
    $tableAdminClient = new BigtableTableAdminClient();

    $instanceName = $instanceAdminClient->instanceName($projectId, $instanceId);

    printf('Listing Tables:' . PHP_EOL);
    $listTablesRequest = (new ListTablesRequest())
        ->setParent($instanceName);
    $tables = $tableAdminClient->listTables($listTablesRequest)->iterateAllElements();
    $tables = iterator_to_array($tables);
    if (empty($tables)) {
        print('No table exists.' . PHP_EOL);
        return;
    }
    foreach ($tables as $table) {
        print($table->getName() . PHP_EOL);
    }
}

Python

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.

tables = instance.list_tables()
print("Listing tables in current project...")
if tables != []:
    for tbl in tables:
        print(tbl.table_id)
else:
    print("No table exists in current project...")

Ruby

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.

# instance_id = "my-instance"
bigtable.tables(instance_id).all.each do |t|
  puts "Table: #{t.name}"
end

View information about a table

Console

To view information about a table:

1. Open the list of Bigtable instances in the Google Cloud console.

   Open the instance list

2. Click the instance whose tables you want to view.

3. Click Tables in the left pane.

   The Tables page displays a list of tables in the instance. For each table, the Google Cloud console displays the number of clusters that the table is stored on, the table's status, storage utilization, and the identifiers for any current backups of the table.

4. To view column family names for the table, click . To close the Edit table pane, click Cancel.

5. To view additional details about the table, including table-level metrics and replication state, click the name of the table.

gcloud

To view information about a table, run the gcloud bigtable instances tables describe command.

gcloud bigtable instances tables describe TABLE_ID \
    --instance=INSTANCE_ID

Replace the following:

• TABLE_ID: a unique ID of the table
• INSTANCE_ID: the ID of the instance

cbt

You can use the cbt CLI to get a list of existing column families in a table.

Use the following command, replacing [TABLE_NAME] with the table name:

cbt ls [TABLE_NAME]

Set garbage collection policies

A garbage collection policy tells Bigtable which data to keep and which data to mark for deletion. Garbage collection policies are set at the column family level. You can set them when you create the table or later.

When you create a column family, you can specify the number of cells that you want to retain in every column in that column family. If you do not specify this setting, Bigtable uses one of the following default settings:

• If you create the column family with the Cloud Bigtable HBase client for Java or the HBase shell, or another tool that uses the HBase client for Java, Bigtable retains only 1 cell for each row/column intersection in the column family. This default setting is consistent with HBase.

• If you create the column family using the Google Cloud console, any other client library or the cbt CLI , Bigtable retains an infinite number of cells in each column.

See Configure garbage collection policies for detailed instructions on how to view, set, and update garbage collection policies.

Back up and restore a table

See Manage backups for instructions on how to back up a table and restore from a backup to a new table.

Preview — Automated backup

This feature is subject to the "Pre-GA Offerings Terms" in the General Service Terms section of the Service Specific Terms. Pre-GA features are available "as is" and might have limited support. For more information, see the launch stage descriptions.

If you have enabled automated backup while creating a table, then you can modify automated backup configuration for a table to enable or disable automated backup, or change the retention period to up to 90 days from the backup creation time. For more information, see Use automated backup.

Enable, disable, or configure a change stream

For instructions on the following tasks, see Configure a change stream.

• Enabling a change stream on an existing table
• Disabling a change stream
• Update the retention period for a change stream

Delete a table

Deleting a table also deletes all authorized views of the table. You can't delete a table if any authorized views of the table have deletion protection enabled.

Warning: When you delete a table, you also delete the data stored in that table.

Console

1. Open the list of Bigtable instances in the Google Cloud console.

   Open the instance list

2. Click the instance whose tables you want to view.

3. Click Tables in the left pane.

   The Tables page displays a list of tables in the instance.

4. Click for the table that you want to delete.

5. Click Delete.

6. To confirm that you acknowledge that this action will delete the table from all clusters in the instance and that you have only seven days to undelete the table, type the table ID in the text box.

7. Click Delete.

gcloud

1. To delete tables, run the gcloud bigtable instances tables delete command.

   gcloud bigtable instances tables delete --instance=INSTANCE_ID
   

   Replace the following:

   • INSTANCE_ID: the ID of the instance

2. In the terminal, enter y to confirm table deletion.

cbt

To delete a table, use the following command, replacing [TABLE_NAME] with the table name:

cbt deletetable [TABLE_NAME]

Undelete a table

If you accidentally delete a table, you can use the gcloud CLI command bigtable instances tables undelete to undelete, or recover, the table. Do not attempt to manually create the deleted table first.

To undelete a table, run the following command in the terminal:

gcloud bigtable instances tables undelete TABLE_ID --instance=INSTANCE_ID

Replace the following:

• TABLE_ID: the unique identifier for the table
• INSTANCE_ID: the ID of the instance

The following limitations apply:

• The ability to undelete a table is available for approximately seven days from the time of table deletion.
• You are not able to undelete a table using the Google Cloud console, the Cloud Bigtable client libraries, or the cbt CLI .
• You are not able to undelete a table from an instance that was deleted.
• You cannot undelete a table that had CMEK enabled.
• Any fine-grained IAM policy bindings that a table has prior to deletion are not restored when the table is undeleted.

You can optionally check the status of the undelete operation in the audit logs.

Modify deletion protection

You can enable or disable deletion protection for a table if you are a principal in a role that includes the bigtable.tables.update permission, such as roles/bigtable.admin. Deletion protection prevents the deletion of the table, all column families in the table, and the instance that contains the table.

Enabling deletion protection for a table does not enable it for authorized views of the table. Similarly, disabling a table's deletion protection does not disable it for authorized views of the table. You must update the table's authorized views separately.

Console

1. Open the list of Bigtable instances in the Google Cloud console.

   Open the instance list

2. Click the instance whose tables you want to view.

3. Click Tables in the left pane.

   The Tables page displays a list of tables in the instance.

4. Click next to the table ID.

5. To enable deletion protection, click Prevent deletion. To disable deletion protection, click Enable deletion. Only the valid option is visible.

gcloud

To enable deletion protection for a table, run the gcloud bigtable instances table update command:

gcloud bigtable instances tables update TABLE_ID \
    --instance=INSTANCE_ID \
    --deletion-protection

To disable deletion protection for a table, run the following:

gcloud bigtable instances tables update TABLE_ID \
    --instance=INSTANCE_ID \
    --no-deletion-protection

Replace the following:

+ TABLE_ID: the unique identifier for the table
+ INSTANCE_ID: the ID of the instance

cbt

You are not able to use the cbt CLI to enable or disable deletion protection.