Retrieve the properties of a table for a given table ID.

## Explore further


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

- [Create and use tables](https://docs.cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/tables)

## Code sample

### Go


Before trying this sample, follow the Go setup instructions in the
[BigQuery quickstart using
client libraries](https://docs.cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/quickstarts/quickstart-client-libraries).


For more information, see the
[BigQuery Go API
reference documentation](https://godoc.org/cloud.google.com/go/bigquery).


To authenticate to BigQuery, set up Application Default Credentials.
For more information, see

[Set up authentication for client libraries](https://docs.cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/authentication#client-libs).

    import (
    	"context"
    	"fmt"
    	"io"

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

    // printTableInfo demonstrates fetching metadata from a table and printing some basic information
    // to an io.Writer.
    func printTableInfo(w io.Writer, 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()

    	meta, err := client.Dataset(datasetID).Table(tableID).Metadata(ctx)
    	if err != nil {
    		return err
    	}
    	// Print basic information about the table.
    	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Schema has %d top-level fields\n", len(meta.https://docs.cloud.google.com/go/docs/reference/cloud.google.com/go/bigquery/latest/index.html#cloud_google_com_go_bigquery_Schema))
    	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Description: %s\n", meta.Description)
    	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Rows in managed storage: %d\n", meta.NumRows)
    	return nil
    }

### Java


Before trying this sample, follow the Java setup instructions in the
[BigQuery quickstart using
client libraries](https://docs.cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/quickstarts/quickstart-client-libraries).


For more information, see the
[BigQuery Java API
reference documentation](https://docs.cloud.google.com/java/docs/reference/google-cloud-bigquery/latest/overview).


To authenticate to BigQuery, set up Application Default Credentials.
For more information, see

[Set up authentication for client libraries](https://docs.cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/authentication#client-libs).

    import com.google.cloud.bigquery.https://docs.cloud.google.com/java/docs/reference/google-cloud-bigquery/latest/com.google.cloud.bigquery.BigQuery.html;
    import com.google.cloud.bigquery.https://docs.cloud.google.com/java/docs/reference/google-cloud-bigquery/latest/com.google.cloud.bigquery.BigQueryException.html;
    import com.google.cloud.bigquery.https://docs.cloud.google.com/java/docs/reference/google-cloud-bigquery/latest/com.google.cloud.bigquery.BigQueryOptions.html;
    import com.google.cloud.bigquery.https://docs.cloud.google.com/java/docs/reference/google-cloud-biglake/latest/com.google.cloud.bigquery.biglake.v1.Table.html;
    import com.google.cloud.bigquery.https://docs.cloud.google.com/java/docs/reference/google-cloud-bigquery/latest/com.google.cloud.bigquery.TableId.html;

    public class GetTable {

      public static void main(String[] args) {
        // TODO(developer): Replace these variables before running the sample.
        String projectId = "bigquery_public_data";
        String datasetName = "samples";
        String tableName = "shakespeare";
        getTable(projectId, datasetName, tableName);
      }

      public static void getTable(String projectId, String datasetName, String tableName) {
        try {
          // Initialize client that will be used to send requests. This client only needs to be created
          // once, and can be reused for multiple requests.
          https://docs.cloud.google.com/java/docs/reference/google-cloud-bigquery/latest/com.google.cloud.bigquery.BigQuery.html bigquery = https://docs.cloud.google.com/java/docs/reference/google-cloud-bigquery/latest/com.google.cloud.bigquery.BigQueryOptions.html.getDefaultInstance().getService();

          https://docs.cloud.google.com/java/docs/reference/google-cloud-bigquery/latest/com.google.cloud.bigquery.TableId.html tableId = https://docs.cloud.google.com/java/docs/reference/google-cloud-bigquery/latest/com.google.cloud.bigquery.TableId.html.of(projectId, datasetName, tableName);
          https://docs.cloud.google.com/java/docs/reference/google-cloud-biglake/latest/com.google.cloud.bigquery.biglake.v1.Table.html table = bigquery.https://docs.cloud.google.com/java/docs/reference/google-cloud-bigquery/latest/com.google.cloud.bigquery.BigQuery.html#com_google_cloud_bigquery_BigQuery_getTable_com_google_cloud_bigquery_TableId_com_google_cloud_bigquery_BigQuery_TableOption____(tableId);
          System.out.println("Table info: " + table.getDescription());
        } catch (https://docs.cloud.google.com/java/docs/reference/google-cloud-bigquery/latest/com.google.cloud.bigquery.BigQueryException.html e) {
          System.out.println("Table not retrieved. \n" + e.toString());
        }
      }
    }

### PHP


Before trying this sample, follow the PHP setup instructions in the
[BigQuery quickstart using
client libraries](https://docs.cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/quickstarts/quickstart-client-libraries).


For more information, see the
[BigQuery PHP API
reference documentation](https://docs.cloud.google.com/php/docs/reference/cloud-bigquery/latest/BigQueryClient).


To authenticate to BigQuery, set up Application Default Credentials.
For more information, see

[Set up authentication for client libraries](https://docs.cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/authentication#client-libs).

    use Google\Cloud\BigQuery\BigQueryClient;

    /** Uncomment and populate these variables in your code */
    //$projectId = 'The Google project ID';
    //$datasetId = 'The BigQuery dataset ID';
    //$tableId   = 'The BigQuery table ID';

    $bigQuery = new BigQueryClient([
        'projectId' => $projectId,
    ]);
    $dataset = $bigQuery->dataset($datasetId);
    $table = $dataset->table($tableId);

### Python


Before trying this sample, follow the Python setup instructions in the
[BigQuery quickstart using
client libraries](https://docs.cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/quickstarts/quickstart-client-libraries).


For more information, see the
[BigQuery Python API
reference documentation](https://docs.cloud.google.com/python/docs/reference/bigquery/latest).


To authenticate to BigQuery, set up Application Default Credentials.
For more information, see

[Set up authentication for client libraries](https://docs.cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/authentication#client-libs).


    from google.cloud import https://docs.cloud.google.com/python/docs/reference/bigquery/latest

    # Construct a BigQuery client object.
    client = https://docs.cloud.google.com/python/docs/reference/bigquery/latest.https://docs.cloud.google.com/python/docs/reference/bigquery/latest/google.cloud.bigquery.client.Client.html()

    # TODO(developer): Set table_id to the ID of the model to fetch.
    # table_id = 'your-project.your_dataset.your_table'

    table = client.https://docs.cloud.google.com/python/docs/reference/bigquery/latest/google.cloud.bigquery.client.Client.html#google_cloud_bigquery_client_Client_get_table(table_id)  # Make an API request.

    # View table properties
    print(
        "Got table '{}.{}.{}'.".format(table.project, table.dataset_id, table.table_id)
    )
    print("Table schema: {}".format(table.schema))
    print("Table description: {}".format(table.description))
    print("Table has {} rows".format(table.https://docs.cloud.google.com/python/docs/reference/bigquery/latest/google.cloud.bigquery.table.Table.html#google_cloud_bigquery_table_Table_num_rows))

## What's next


To search and filter code samples for other Google Cloud products, see the
[Google Cloud sample browser](https://docs.cloud.google.com/docs/samples?product=bigquery).