Create tables

Page Summary

Temporary and persistent tables help streamline queries by creating reusable intermediate results.
Created tables are subject to the same privacy checks, allowed functions, and field join limitations enforced throughout Ads Data Hub.
Temporary tables exist only for the duration of the query and can store unaggregated data.
Persistent tables last for 72 hours, can be used in other queries, and can also store unaggregated data, though their contents are only visible through privacy-checked query results.
You can create tables that are subject to privacy checks by using the OPTIONS(privacy_checked_export=true) clause.

Temporary tables and persistent tables help you streamline queries, making them easier to understand and maintain. By creating intermediate results that you can reuse, while giving you the option to keep the temporary data unaggregated, you can reduce the resources required to execute queries, improving performance.

Created tables are subject to the same static privacy checks , allowed functions , and field join limitations enforced throughout Ads Data Hub. Standard privacy checks apply when the data from the final SELECT statement is output to BigQuery.

To create tables, follow the BigQuery syntax:

  CREATE 
  
 [ 
 OR 
  
 REPLACE 
 ] 
  
 [ 
 TEMP 
  
 | 
  
 TEMPORARY 
 ] 
  
 TABLE 
  
 TABLE_NAME 
  
 [ 
 OPTIONS 
 ( 
 privacy_checked_export 
 = 
< true 
  
 | 
  
 false 
> )] 
  
 AS 
  
 query_statement 
 ;

These clauses are not supported:

IF NOT EXISTS
PARTITION BY
CLUSTER BY

Temporary tables

Temporary(or temp) tablesimprove query readability, and allow you to create intermediate results that may include unaggregated data.

Temp tables:

Only exist at the session level, and expire after query execution
Can only be used inside of the query in which it was created
May store unaggregated data that has not yet applied privacy checks
Are referenced by name without any required namespace

To create a temp table, use the CREATE TEMP TABLE statement. This example creates a temp table to store the results of a query, then uses the temp table in a subquery:

  -- Get a list of creative IDs and store in a temporary table called creative_list: 
 CREATE 
  
 TEMP 
  
 TABLE 
  
 creative_list 
  
 AS 
  
 ( 
  
 SELECT 
  
 adgroup_id 
 , 
  
 advertiser_id 
 , 
  
 creative_id 
  
 FROM 
  
 adh 
 . 
 dv360_youtube_impressions 
 ); 
 -- Return creatives with a count of impressions greater than 100 
 SELECT 
  
 creative_id 
 , 
  
 COUNT 
 ( 
 * 
 ) 
  
 AS 
  
 imps 
 FROM 
  
 creative_list 
 WHERE 
  
 imps 
 > 
 100 
 GROUP 
  
 BY 
  
 creative_id 
 ;

Persistent tables

If you need to create an intermediate table to use in other queries, you can create a persistent table. The syntax is the same as for temp tables, without the TEMP clause. These tables last for 72 hours. If a table with the selected name already exists, it is overwritten.

Persistent tables may store unaggregated data, but the contents of the table are not visible except through privacy-checked query results.

Persistent tables:

Expire after 72 hours
Can be used outside of the query that created it
May store unaggregated data that has not yet applied privacy checks
Are referenced through the tmp namespace, but can also be referenced by name in the same query

To create a persistent table, use the CREATE TABLE statement. This example creates a persistent table to store the results of a query, then uses the persistent table in a later query:

Query 1

  -- Get a list of creative IDs and store in a persistent table called creative_list: 
 CREATE 
  
 TABLE 
  
 creative_list 
  
 AS 
  
 ( 
  
 SELECT 
  
 adgroup_id 
 , 
  
 advertiser_id 
 , 
  
 creative_id 
  
 FROM 
  
 adh 
 . 
 dv360_youtube_impressions 
 ); 
 -- Return the total count of impressions in the table 
 SELECT 
  
 COUNT 
 ( 
 * 
 ) 
  
 AS 
  
 imps 
 FROM 
  
 tmp 
 . 
 creative_list 
  
 -- Alternative: creative_list

Query 2

  -- Return creatives which had more than 100 impressions 
 SELECT 
  
 creative_id 
 , 
  
 COUNT 
 ( 
 * 
 ) 
  
 AS 
  
 imps 
 FROM 
  
 tmp 
 . 
 creative_list 
 WHERE 
  
 imps 
 > 
 100 
 GROUP 
  
 BY 
  
 creative_id 
 ;

Apply privacy checks

Ads Data Hub also supports a SQL syntax to create intermediate result tables that are subject to privacy checks.

To create a table that is subject to privacy checks, add the OPTIONS clause to your query:

  OPTIONS 
 ( 
 privacy_checked_export 
 = 
 true 
 )

This example creates a session-level temp table and applies privacy checks:

  -- Get a list of creative IDs and store in a temporary table called creative_list: 
 CREATE 
  
 TEMP 
  
 TABLE 
  
 creative_list 
  
  OPTIONS 
 ( 
 privacy_checked_export 
 = 
 true 
 ) 
  
 AS 
  
 ( 
  
 SELECT 
  
 adgroup_id 
 , 
  
 advertiser_id 
 , 
  
 creative_id 
  
 FROM 
  
 adh 
 . 
 dv360_youtube_impressions 
 );

This example creates a persistent table, applies privacy checks, and exports it to your Google Cloud project:

  -- Get a list of creative IDs and store in a persistent table called creative_list: 
 CREATE 
  
 TABLE 
  
 ` 
 myproject 
 . 
 mydataset 
 . 
 creative_list 
 ` 
  
  OPTIONS 
 ( 
 privacy_checked_export 
 = 
 true 
 ) 
  
 AS 
  
 ( 
  
 SELECT 
  
 adgroup_id 
 , 
  
 advertiser_id 
 , 
  
 creative_id 
  
 FROM 
  
 adh 
 . 
 dv360_youtube_impressions 
 );

Export multiple tables using a single query

Ads Data Hub supports a flexible SQL syntax to export viewable result tables in cases where one table per query is not enough. These tables are subject to the same privacy checks enforced throughout Ads Data Hub.

The syntax for exporting a table alongside the main SQL expression is:

  CREATE 
  
 TABLE 
  
< project_name 
 . 
 dataset_name 
 . 
 table_name 
>  
 OPTIONS 
 ( 
 privacy_checked_export 
 = 
 true 
 ) 
  
 AS 
  
 query_statement 
 ;

For example, to export a table to the BigQuery destination myproject.mydataset.mytable which contains a count of rows for each campaign ID from the table adh.google_ads_impressions :

  CREATE 
  
 TABLE 
  
 ` 
 myproject 
 . 
 mydataset 
 . 
 mytable 
 ` 
  
 OPTIONS 
 ( 
 privacy_checked_export 
 = 
 true 
 ) 
  
 AS 
  
 SELECT 
  
 campaign_id 
 , 
  
 COUNT 
 ( 
 * 
 ) 
  
 AS 
  
 ct 
  
 FROM 
  
 adh 
 . 
 google_ads_impressions 
  
 GROUP 
  
 BY 
  
 campaign_id 
 ;

Tables may also be referenced in the same query in which they were created. For example, the query:

  CREATE 
  
 TABLE 
  
 ` 
 myproject 
 . 
 mydataset 
 . 
 mytable 
 ` 
  
 OPTIONS 
 ( 
 privacy_checked_export 
 = 
 true 
 ) 
  
 AS 
  
 SELECT 
  
 campaign_id 
 , 
  
 COUNT 
 ( 
 * 
 ) 
  
 AS 
  
 ct 
  
 FROM 
  
 adh 
 . 
 google_ads_impressions 
  
 GROUP 
  
 BY 
  
 campaign_id 
 ; 
 SELECT 
  
 ct 
  
 FROM 
  
 ` 
 myproject 
 . 
 mydataset 
 . 
 mytable 
 ` 
 ;

outputs two tables:

One at myproject.mydataset.mytable , with the columns campaign_id and ct
One at the location specified in the Destination table field of the job arguments, with the column ct

It is also possible to add a filtered-row summary to these tables. Read about filtered row summaries .