Running your first query

Now that the data is imported to the table, it is time to write a basic query to examine the data in it:

1. Click on the table under the dataset, and then click on the Query Table option on the right. Type the query shown in the following screenshot.

1. Click on the validator icon to see how many bytes of data from the table will be used to execute this query. If you add more columns to the selected query, the number of bytes processed will increase, which in turn will increase your billing. BigQuery uses columnar storage and also stores the data in a compressed format. It is advised to add only those columns that are needed to the query.

BigQuery SQL is case insensitive except for the project name, dataset name, and table name used in the query. It is always good to follow a convention when naming your projects, datasets, tables, and columns. BigQuery web console also provides an autocomplete feature to help users type column names and tables names easily, similar to IntelliSense in Microsoft Visual Studio.

It is always better to open the validator and get an estimate of the amount of bytes to be processed for your query. This will help you keep an eye on the billing.