Querying multiple tables in Big Query

Question

As it is not possible to update data within a table in BigQuery, and supports only append mechanism, I have decided to create new tables on monthly basis. So suppose for yea

Answer 1

2017 update:

With BigQuery #standardSQL - you can either use standard UNION ALL to go through multiple tables, or you can use a * to match all tables that share the same prefix. When using the * matcher, you will also have access to the meta-column _TABLE_SUFFIX - to know which table the rows came from.

SELECT * FROM Roster
UNION ALL
SELECT * FROM TeamMascot

Answer 2

One SQL query can reference multiple tables. Just separate each table with a comma in the FROM clause to query across all mentioned tables.

Answer 3

Here is a snippet demonstrating an example of the multiple table select:

SELECT trafficSource.medium AS Traffic_Source, COUNT(trafficSource.medium) AS Counts_Source
FROM [608XXXXX.ga_sessions_20131008],
[608XXXXX.ga_sessions_20131009],
[608XXXXX.ga_sessions_20131010],
[608XXXXX.ga_sessions_20131011],
[608XXXXX.ga_sessions_20131012],
[608XXXXX.ga_sessions_20131013],
[608XXXXX.ga_sessions_20131014],
[608XXXXX.ga_sessions_20131015],
GROUP BY Traffic_Source
ORDER BY Counts_Source DESC

Answer 4

You can also use a Table Wildcard Function. Here's one example from the docs for StandardSQL:

SELECT 
  name
FROM 
  mydata.people
WHERE 
  age >= 35
  AND
  (_TABLE_SUFFIX BETWEEN '20140325' AND '20140327')

And here's a similar example for LegacySQL (docs).

SELECT 
  name
FROM 
  (TABLE_DATE_RANGE([mydata.people], 
                TIMESTAMP('2014-03-25'), 
                TIMESTAMP('2014-03-27'))) 
WHERE 
  age >= 35

This will query the tables:

• mydata.people20140325
• mydata.people20140326
• mydata.people20140327

There are a few other options on the docs. I'd recommend checking them out.

Answer 5

Standard SQL.

Use a wildcard.

SELECT trafficSource.medium AS Traffic_Source, COUNT(trafficSource.medium) AS Counts_Source
FROM `608XXXXX.ga_sessions_201310*`
GROUP BY Traffic_Source
ORDER BY Counts_Source DESC