TABLES view

The INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES view contains one row for each table or view in a dataset. The TABLES and TABLE_OPTIONS views also contain high-level information about views. For detailed information, query the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.VIEWS view.

Required permissions

To query the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES view, you need the following Identity and Access Management (IAM) permissions:

bigquery.tables.get
bigquery.tables.list
bigquery.routines.get
bigquery.routines.list

Each of the following predefined IAM roles includes the preceding permissions:

roles/bigquery.admin
roles/bigquery.dataViewer
roles/bigquery.metadataViewer

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

Schema

When you query the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES view, the query results contain one row for each table or view in a dataset. For detailed information about views, query the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.VIEWS view instead.

The INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES view has the following schema:

Column name	Data type	Value
`table_catalog`	`STRING`	The project ID of the project that contains the dataset.
`table_schema`	`STRING`	The name of the dataset that contains the table or view. Also referred to as the `datasetId`.
`table_name`	`STRING`	The name of the table or view. Also referred to as the `tableId`.
`table_type`	`STRING`	The table type; one of the following: `BASE TABLE`: A standard table `CLONE`: A table clone `SNAPSHOT`: A table snapshot `VIEW`: A view `MATERIALIZED VIEW`: A materialized view or materialized view replica `EXTERNAL`: A table that references an external data source
`is_insertable_into`	`STRING`	`YES` or `NO` depending on whether the table supports DML INSERT statements
`is_typed`	`STRING`	The value is always `NO`
`creation_time`	`TIMESTAMP`	The table's creation time
`base_table_catalog`	`STRING`	For table clones and table snapshots, the base table's project. Applicable only to tables with `table_type` set to `CLONE` or `SNAPSHOT`.
`base_table_schema`	`STRING`	For table clones and table snapshots, the base table's dataset. Applicable only to tables with `table_type` set to `CLONE` or `SNAPSHOT`.
`base_table_name`	`STRING`	For table clones and table snapshots, the base table's name. Applicable only to tables with `table_type` set to `CLONE` or `SNAPSHOT`.
`snapshot_time_ms`	`TIMESTAMP`	For table clones and table snapshots, the time when the clone or snapshot operation was run on the base table to create this table. If time travel was used, then this field contains the time travel timestamp. Otherwise, the `snapshot_time_ms` field is the same as the `creation_time` field. Applicable only to tables with `table_type` set to `CLONE` or `SNAPSHOT`.
`replica_source_catalog`	`STRING`	For materialized view replicas, the base materialized view's project.
`replica_source_schema`	`STRING`	For materialized view replicas, the base materialized view's dataset.
`replica_source_name`	`STRING`	For materialized view replicas, the base materialized view's name.
`replication_status`	`STRING`	For materialized view replicas, the status of the replication from the base materialized view to the materialized view replica; one of the following: `REPLICATION_STATUS_UNSPECIFIED` `ACTIVE`: Replication is active with no errors `SOURCE_DELETED`: The source materialized view has been deleted `PERMISSION_DENIED`: The source materialized view hasn't been authorized on the dataset that contains the source Amazon S3 BigLake tables used in the query that created the materialized view. `UNSUPPORTED_CONFIGURATION`: There is an issue with the replica's prerequisites other than source materialized view authorization.
`replication_error`	`STRING`	If `replication_status` indicates a replication issue for a materialized view replica, `replication_error` provides further details about the issue.
`ddl`	`STRING`	The DDL statement that can be used to recreate the table, such as `CREATE TABLE` or `CREATE VIEW`
`default_collation_name`	`STRING`	The name of the default collation specification if it exists; otherwise, `NULL`.
`upsert_stream_apply_watermark`	`TIMESTAMP`	For tables that use change data capture (CDC), the time when row modifications were last applied. For more information, see Monitor table upsert operation progress.

Scope and syntax

Queries against this view must include a dataset or a region qualifier. For queries with a dataset qualifier, you must have permissions for the dataset. For queries with a region qualifier, you must have permissions for the project. For more information see Syntax. The following table explains the region and resource scopes for this view:

View name	Resource scope	Region scope
[PROJECT_ID.]`region-REGION`.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES	Project level	`REGION`
`[PROJECT_ID.]DATASET_ID.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES`	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.

REGION: any dataset region name. For example, `region-us`.
DATASET_ID: the ID of your dataset. For more information, see Dataset qualifier.

Note: You must use a region qualifier to query INFORMATION_SCHEMA views. The location of the query execution must match the region of the INFORMATION_SCHEMA view.

Example

-- Returns metadata for tables in a single dataset.
SELECT * FROM myDataset.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES;

Examples

Example 1:

The following example retrieves table metadata for all of the tables in the dataset named mydataset. The metadata that's returned is for all types of tables in mydataset in your default project.

mydataset contains the following tables:

mytable1: a standard BigQuery table
myview1: a BigQuery view

To run the query against a project other than your default project, add the project ID to the dataset in the following format: `project_id`.dataset.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.view; for example, `myproject`.mydataset.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES.

SELECT
  table_catalog, table_schema, table_name, table_type,
  is_insertable_into, creation_time, ddl
FROM
  mydataset.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES;

The result is similar to the following. For readability, some columns are excluded from the result.

+----------------+---------------+----------------+------------+--------------------+---------------------+---------------------------------------------+
| table_catalog  | table_schema  |   table_name   | table_type | is_insertable_into |    creation_time    |                     ddl                     |
+----------------+---------------+----------------+------------+--------------------+---------------------+---------------------------------------------+
| myproject      | mydataset     | mytable1       | BASE TABLE | YES                | 2018-10-29 20:34:44 | CREATE TABLE `myproject.mydataset.mytable1` |
|                |               |                |            |                    |                     | (                                           |
|                |               |                |            |                    |                     |   id INT64                                  |
|                |               |                |            |                    |                     | );                                          |
| myproject      | mydataset     | myview1        | VIEW       | NO                 | 2018-12-29 00:19:20 | CREATE VIEW `myproject.mydataset.myview1`   |
|                |               |                |            |                    |                     | AS SELECT 100 as id;                        |
+----------------+---------------+----------------+------------+--------------------+---------------------+---------------------------------------------+

Example 2:

The following example retrieves table metadata for all tables of type CLONE or SNAPSHOT from the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES view. The metadata returned is for tables in mydataset in your default project.

  SELECT
    table_name, table_type, base_table_catalog,
    base_table_schema, base_table_name, snapshot_time_ms
  FROM
    mydataset.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
  WHERE
    table_type = 'CLONE'
  OR
    table_type = 'SNAPSHOT';

The result is similar to the following. For readability, some columns are excluded from the result.

  +--------------+------------+--------------------+-------------------+-----------------+---------------------+
  | table_name   | table_type | base_table_catalog | base_table_schema | base_table_name | snapshot_time_ms    |
  +--------------+------------+--------------------+-------------------+-----------------+---------------------+
  | items_clone  | CLONE      | myproject          | mydataset         | items           | 2018-10-31 22:40:05 |
  | orders_bk    | SNAPSHOT   | myproject          | mydataset         | orders          | 2018-11-01 08:22:39 |
  +--------------+------------+--------------------+-------------------+-----------------+---------------------+

Example 3:

The following example retrieves table_name and ddl columns from the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES view for the population_by_zip_2010 table in the census_bureau_usa dataset. This dataset is part of the BigQuery public dataset program.

Because the table you're querying is in another project, you add the project ID to the dataset in the following format: `project_id`.dataset.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.view. In this example, the value is `bigquery-public-data`.census_bureau_usa.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES.

SELECT
  table_name, ddl
FROM
  `bigquery-public-data`.census_bureau_usa.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
WHERE
  table_name = 'population_by_zip_2010';

The result is similar to the following:

+------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|       table_name       |                                                                                                            ddl                                                                                                             |
+------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| population_by_zip_2010 | CREATE TABLE `bigquery-public-data.census_bureau_usa.population_by_zip_2010`                                                                                                                                               |
|                        | (                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
|                        |   geo_id STRING OPTIONS(description="Geo code"),                                                                                                                                                                           |
|                        |   zipcode STRING NOT NULL OPTIONS(description="Five digit ZIP Code Tabulation Area Census Code"),                                                                                                                          |
|                        |   population INT64 OPTIONS(description="The total count of the population for this segment."),                                                                                                                             |
|                        |   minimum_age INT64 OPTIONS(description="The minimum age in the age range. If null, this indicates the row as a total for male, female, or overall population."),                                                          |
|                        |   maximum_age INT64 OPTIONS(description="The maximum age in the age range. If null, this indicates the row as having no maximum (such as 85 and over) or the row is a total of the male, female, or overall population."), |
|                        |   gender STRING OPTIONS(description="male or female. If empty, the row is a total population summary.")                                                                                                                    |
|                        | )                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
|                        | OPTIONS(                                                                                                                                                                                                                   |
|                        |   labels=[("freebqcovid", "")]                                                                                                                                                                                             |
|                        | );                                                                                                                                                                                                                         |
+------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+