Add a column using a query job

Add a new column to a BigQuery table while appending rows using a query job with an explicit destination table.

Explore further

For detailed documentation that includes this code sample, see the following:

• Modifying table schemas

Code sample

Go

Before trying this sample, follow the Go setup instructions in the BigQuery quickstart using client libraries. For more information, see the BigQuery Go API reference documentation.

To authenticate to BigQuery, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries.

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"

	"cloud.google.com/go/bigquery"
)

// createTableAndWidenQuery demonstrates how the schema of a table can be modified to add columns by appending
// query results that include the new columns.
func createTableAndWidenQuery(projectID, datasetID, tableID string) error {
	// projectID := "my-project-id"
	// datasetID := "mydataset"
	// tableID := "mytable"
	ctx := context.Background()
	client, err := bigquery.NewClient(ctx, projectID)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("bigquery.NewClient: %w", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	// First, we create a sample table.
	sampleSchema := bigquery.Schema{
		{Name: "full_name", Type: bigquery.StringFieldType, Required: true},
		{Name: "age", Type: bigquery.IntegerFieldType, Required: true},
	}
	original := &bigquery.TableMetadata{
		Schema: sampleSchema,
	}
	tableRef := client.Dataset(datasetID).Table(tableID)
	if err := tableRef.Create(ctx, original); err != nil {
		return err
	}
	// Our table has two columns.  We'll introduce a new favorite_color column via
	// a subsequent query that appends to the table.
	q := client.Query("SELECT \"Timmy\" as full_name, 85 as age, \"Blue\" as favorite_color")
	q.SchemaUpdateOptions = []string{"ALLOW_FIELD_ADDITION"}
	q.QueryConfig.Dst = client.Dataset(datasetID).Table(tableID)
	q.WriteDisposition = bigquery.WriteAppend
	q.Location = "US"
	job, err := q.Run(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	_, err = job.Wait(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	return nil
}

PHP

Before trying this sample, follow the PHP setup instructions in the BigQuery quickstart using client libraries. For more information, see the BigQuery PHP API reference documentation.

To authenticate to BigQuery, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries.

use Google\Cloud\BigQuery\BigQueryClient;

/**
 * Append a column using a query job.
 *
 * @param string $projectId The project Id of your Google Cloud Project.
 * @param string $datasetId The BigQuery dataset ID.
 * @param string $tableId The BigQuery table ID.
 */
function add_column_query_append(
    string $projectId,
    string $datasetId,
    string $tableId
): void {
    $bigQuery = new BigQueryClient([
      'projectId' => $projectId,
    ]);
    $dataset = $bigQuery->dataset($datasetId);
    $table = $dataset->table($tableId);

    // In this example, the existing table contains only the 'Name' and 'Title'.
    // A new column 'Description' gets added after the query job.

    // Define query
    $query = sprintf('SELECT "John" as name, "Unknown" as title, "Dummy person" as description;');

    // Set job configs
    $queryJobConfig = $bigQuery->query($query);
    $queryJobConfig->destinationTable($table);
    $queryJobConfig->schemaUpdateOptions(['ALLOW_FIELD_ADDITION']);
    $queryJobConfig->writeDisposition('WRITE_APPEND');

    // Run query with query job configuration
    $bigQuery->runQuery($queryJobConfig);

    // Print all the columns
    $columns = $table->info()['schema']['fields'];
    printf('The columns in the table are ');
    foreach ($columns as $column) {
        printf('%s ', $column['name']);
    }
}

What's next

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