Cloud Spanner client libraries

This page shows how to get started with the Cloud Client Libraries for the Cloud Spanner API. Read more about the client libraries for Cloud APIs, including the older Google API Client Libraries, in Client Libraries Explained.

The Cloud Spanner client libraries mentioned on this page are supported on Compute Engine, App Engine flexible environment, Google Kubernetes Engine, and Cloud Functions. The Cloud Spanner client library for Java is supported on App Engine standard environment with Java 8.

If you are using the App Engine standard environment with Go, PHP, or Python, use the REST interface to access Cloud Spanner.

Installing the client library

C++

See the GitHub quickstart documents for details about this client library's requirements and install dependencies.

C#

For more information, see Setting Up a C# Development Environment.

To install the Google.Cloud.Spanner.Data client library in Visual Studio, do the following:

  1. Right-click your solution in Visual Studio and select Manage Nuget packages for solution.

  2. Select the Include prerelease checkbox.

  3. Search for and install the package named Google.Cloud.Spanner.Data.

Go

For more information, see Setting Up a Go Development Environment.

go get cloud.google.com/go/spanner/...

Java

For more information, see Setting Up a Java Development Environment.

If you are using Maven, add the following to your pom.xml file. For more information about BOMs, see The Google Cloud Platform Libraries BOM.

<dependencyManagement>
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
      <artifactId>libraries-bom</artifactId>
      <version>25.3.0</version>
      <type>pom</type>
      <scope>import</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>

<dependencies>
  <dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.cloud</groupId>
    <artifactId>google-cloud-spanner</artifactId>
  </dependency>

If you are using Gradle, add the following to your dependencies:

implementation platform('com.google.cloud:libraries-bom:25.3.0')

implementation 'com.google.cloud:google-cloud-spanner'

If you are using sbt, add the following to your dependencies:

libraryDependencies += "com.google.cloud" % "google-cloud-spanner" % "6.24.0"

If you're using Visual Studio Code, IntelliJ, or Eclipse, you can add client libraries to your project using the following IDE plugins:

The plugins provide additional functionality, such as key management for service accounts. Refer to each plugin's documentation for details.

Node.js

For more information, see Setting Up a Node.js Development Environment.

npm install --save @google-cloud/spanner

PHP

For more information, see Using PHP on Google Cloud.

composer require google/cloud-spanner

Python

For more information, see Setting Up a Python Development Environment.

pip install --upgrade google-cloud-spanner

Ruby

For more information, see Setting Up a Ruby Development Environment.

gem install google-cloud-spanner

Setting up authentication

To run the client library, you must first set up authentication. One way to do that is to create a service account and set an environment variable, as shown in the following steps. For other ways to authenticate, see Authenticating as a service account.

Console

Create a service account:

  1. In the Cloud console, go to the Create service account page.

    Go to Create service account
  2. Select your project.

  3. In the Service account name field, enter a name. The Cloud console fills in the Service account ID field based on this name.

    In the Service account description field, enter a description. For example, Service account for quickstart.

  4. Click Create and continue.

  5. To provide access to your project, grant the following role(s) to your service account: Project > Owner.

    In the Select a role list, select a role.

    For additional roles, click Add another role and add each additional role.

  6. Click Continue.

  7. Click Done to finish creating the service account.

    Do not close your browser window. You will use it in the next step.

Create a service account key:

  1. In the Cloud console, click the email address for the service account that you created.
  2. Click Keys.
  3. Click Add key, and then click Create new key.
  4. Click Create. A JSON key file is downloaded to your computer.
  5. Click Close.

gcloud

Set up authentication:

  1. Create the service account. Replace NAME with a name for the service account: 

    gcloud iam service-accounts create NAME

  2. Grant roles to the service account. Run the following command once for each of the following IAM roles: roles/owner: 

    gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID --member="serviceAccount:NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com" --role=ROLE

    Replace the following:

    • NAME: the name of the service account
    • PROJECT_ID: the project ID where you created the service account
    • ROLE: the role to grant

  3. Generate the key file: 

    gcloud iam service-accounts keys create FILE_NAME.json --iam-account=NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com

    Replace the following:

    • FILE_NAME: a name for the key file
    • NAME: the name of the service account
    • PROJECT_ID: the project ID where you created the service account

Provide authentication credentials to your application code by setting the environment variable GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS. This variable applies only to your current shell session. If you want the variable to apply to future shell sessions, set the variable in your shell startup file, for example in the ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile file.

Linux or macOS

export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="KEY_PATH"

Replace KEY_PATH with the path of the JSON file that contains your service account key.

For example:

export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="/home/user/Downloads/service-account-file.json"

Windows

For PowerShell:

$env:GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="KEY_PATH"

Replace KEY_PATH with the path of the JSON file that contains your service account key.

For example:

$env:GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="C:\Users\username\Downloads\service-account-file.json"

For command prompt:

set GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS=KEY_PATH

Replace KEY_PATH with the path of the JSON file that contains your service account key.

Using the client library

The following example shows how to use the client library.

C++

To learn how to install and use the client library for Cloud Spanner, see Cloud Spanner client libraries. 

#include "google/cloud/spanner/client.h"
void Quickstart(std::string const& project_id, std::string const& instance_id,
                std::string const& database_id) {
  namespace spanner = ::google::cloud::spanner;

  auto database = spanner::Database(project_id, instance_id, database_id);
  auto connection = spanner::MakeConnection(database);
  auto client = spanner::Client(connection);

  auto rows =
      client.ExecuteQuery(spanner::SqlStatement("SELECT 'Hello World'"));
  using RowType = std::tuple<std::string>;
  for (auto const& row : spanner::StreamOf<RowType>(rows)) {
    if (!row) throw std::runtime_error(row.status().message());
    std::cout << std::get<0>(*row) << "\n";
  }
}

C#

To learn how to install and use the client library for Cloud Spanner, see Cloud Spanner client libraries. 


using Google.Cloud.Spanner.Data;
using System;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace GoogleCloudSamples.Spanner
{
    public class QuickStart
    {
        static async Task MainAsync()
        {
            string projectId = "YOUR-PROJECT-ID";
            string instanceId = "my-instance";
            string databaseId = "my-database";
            string connectionString =
                $"Data Source=projects/{projectId}/instances/{instanceId}/"
                + $"databases/{databaseId}";
            // Create connection to Cloud Spanner.
            using (var connection = new SpannerConnection(connectionString))
            {
                // Execute a simple SQL statement.
                var cmd = connection.CreateSelectCommand(
                    @"SELECT ""Hello World"" as test");
                using (var reader = await cmd.ExecuteReaderAsync())
                {
                    while (await reader.ReadAsync())
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine(
                            reader.GetFieldValue<string>("test"));
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            MainAsync().Wait();
        }
    }
}

Go

To learn how to install and use the client library for Cloud Spanner, see Cloud Spanner client libraries. 


// Sample spanner_quickstart is a basic program that uses Cloud Spanner.
package main

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"log"

	"cloud.google.com/go/spanner"
	"google.golang.org/api/iterator"
)

func main() {
	ctx := context.Background()

	// This database must exist.
	databaseName := "projects/your-project-id/instances/your-instance-id/databases/your-database-id"

	client, err := spanner.NewClient(ctx, databaseName)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalf("Failed to create client %v", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	stmt := spanner.Statement{SQL: "SELECT 1"}
	iter := client.Single().Query(ctx, stmt)
	defer iter.Stop()

	for {
		row, err := iter.Next()
		if err == iterator.Done {
			fmt.Println("Done")
			return
		}
		if err != nil {
			log.Fatalf("Query failed with %v", err)
		}

		var i int64
		if row.Columns(&i) != nil {
			log.Fatalf("Failed to parse row %v", err)
		}
		fmt.Printf("Got value %v\n", i)
	}
}

Java

To learn how to install and use the client library for Cloud Spanner, see Cloud Spanner client libraries. 

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
import com.google.cloud.spanner.DatabaseClient;
import com.google.cloud.spanner.DatabaseId;
import com.google.cloud.spanner.ResultSet;
import com.google.cloud.spanner.Spanner;
import com.google.cloud.spanner.SpannerOptions;
import com.google.cloud.spanner.Statement;

/**
 * A quick start code for Cloud Spanner. It demonstrates how to setup the Cloud Spanner client and
 * execute a simple query using it against an existing database.
 */
public class QuickstartSample {
  public static void main(String... args) throws Exception {

    if (args.length != 2) {
      System.err.println("Usage: QuickStartSample <instance_id> <database_id>");
      return;
    }
    // Instantiates a client
    SpannerOptions options = SpannerOptions.newBuilder().build();
    Spanner spanner = options.getService();

    // Name of your instance & database.
    String instanceId = args[0];
    String databaseId = args[1];
    try {
      // Creates a database client
      DatabaseClient dbClient =
          spanner.getDatabaseClient(DatabaseId.of(options.getProjectId(), instanceId, databaseId));
      // Queries the database
      ResultSet resultSet = dbClient.singleUse().executeQuery(Statement.of("SELECT 1"));

      System.out.println("\n\nResults:");
      // Prints the results
      while (resultSet.next()) {
        System.out.printf("%d\n\n", resultSet.getLong(0));
      }
    } finally {
      // Closes the client which will free up the resources used
      spanner.close();
    }
  }
}

Node.js

To learn how to install and use the client library for Cloud Spanner, see Cloud Spanner client libraries. 

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
const {Spanner} = require('@google-cloud/spanner');

// Creates a client
const spanner = new Spanner({projectId});

// Gets a reference to a Cloud Spanner instance and database
const instance = spanner.instance(instanceId);
const database = instance.database(databaseId);

// The query to execute
const query = {
  sql: 'SELECT 1',
};

// Execute a simple SQL statement
const [rows] = await database.run(query);
console.log(`Query: ${rows.length} found.`);
rows.forEach(row => console.log(row));

PHP

To learn how to install and use the client library for Cloud Spanner, see Cloud Spanner client libraries. 

# Includes the autoloader for libraries installed with composer
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

# Imports the Google Cloud client library
use Google\Cloud\Spanner\SpannerClient;

# Your Google Cloud Platform project ID
$projectId = 'YOUR_PROJECT_ID';

# Instantiates a client
$spanner = new SpannerClient([
    'projectId' => $projectId
]);

# Your Cloud Spanner instance ID.
$instanceId = 'your-instance-id';

# Get a Cloud Spanner instance by ID.
$instance = $spanner->instance($instanceId);

# Your Cloud Spanner database ID.
$databaseId = 'your-database-id';

# Get a Cloud Spanner database by ID.
$database = $instance->database($databaseId);

# Execute a simple SQL statement.
$results = $database->execute('SELECT "Hello World" as test');

foreach ($results as $row) {
    print($row['test'] . PHP_EOL);
}

Python

To learn how to install and use the client library for Cloud Spanner, see Cloud Spanner client libraries. 

# Imports the Google Cloud Client Library.
from google.cloud import spanner

# Your Cloud Spanner instance ID.
# instance_id = "my-instance-id"
#
# Your Cloud Spanner database ID.
# database_id = "my-database-id"

# Instantiate a client.
spanner_client = spanner.Client()

# Get a Cloud Spanner instance by ID.
instance = spanner_client.instance(instance_id)

# Get a Cloud Spanner database by ID.
database = instance.database(database_id)

# Execute a simple SQL statement.
with database.snapshot() as snapshot:
    results = snapshot.execute_sql("SELECT 1")

    for row in results:
        print(row)

Ruby

To learn how to install and use the client library for Cloud Spanner, see Cloud Spanner client libraries. 

# Imports the Google Cloud client library
require "google/cloud/spanner"

# Your Google Cloud Platform project ID
project_id = "YOUR_PROJECT_ID"

# Instantiates a client
spanner = Google::Cloud::Spanner.new project: project_id

# Your Cloud Spanner instance ID
instance_id = "my-instance"

# Your Cloud Spanner database ID
database_id = "my-database"

# Gets a reference to a Cloud Spanner instance database
database_client = spanner.client instance_id, database_id

# Execute a simple SQL statement
results = database_client.execute_query "SELECT 1"
results.rows.each do |row|
  puts row
end

Additional resources

Additional client libraries

In addition to the libraries shown above, a Spring Data module is available for Java applications. Spring Data Cloud Spanner helps you use Cloud Spanner in any application that's built with the Spring Framework.

To get started, learn how to add Spring Data Cloud Spanner to your application.