BigQuery BigLake Tables Explained: What They Are and When to Use Them
Query your data lake with warehouse-grade security and performance — without moving a single file.
Apr 26, 20264 min read
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BigQuery Saves Your Query Results — Here's How to Find Them
Ever run a heavy BigQuery SQL query, processed gigabytes of data — and then accidentally closed the tab or forgot to save the results? 😬 Don't re-run it. Your results are still there. BigQuery automa
Mar 5, 20261 min read
Parameters in BigQuery
You can use query parameters in BigQuery hashtag#SQL (now in the console as well!) — but how are they different from variables, and when should you use each? Both parameters and variables act as place
Feb 7, 20261 min read
Flattening JSON arrays in BigQuery
I've noticed that a new JSON function has been added (in Preview) in BigQuery SQL - JSON_FLATTEN(). It allows us to flatten JSON arrays and return a single flat ARRAY, no matter how many nested levels there are. So where is this actually useful?➡️ Ha...
Dec 7, 20251 min read
Using LAST_VALUE with STRUCTS
Even an “empty” STRUCT is still technically something. Not the same as a standalone NULL value. This is why, if you work with STRUCTs in SQL and try to find the latest non-empty struct using LAST_VALUE(...) IGNORE NULLS, you’ll notice it doesn’t help...
Oct 5, 20251 min read
Table grain quick validation with SQL
I was doing some exploratory data analysis on a number of tables I didn’t have much information about and, unfortunately, didn’t know their grain. I needed a quick way to validate my assumptions about the table grain, identify contradicting observati...
Oct 4, 20251 min read
WITH expressions in BigQuery
So I recently discovered the WITH expression in BigQuery SQL. Not to be confused with the WITH clause, which we use to define common table expressions (CTEs). 👉 What does a WITH expression do?It lets you define a series of variables, scoped to a sin...
Sep 30, 20251 min read
Beware of ROW_NUMBER without ORDER BY
Haven’t posted all summer, but this bug pulled me straight out of the shadows. I recently faced a mystery that pushed me to the edge of despair. It seemed like a simple issue at first glance. A report kept changing completely at random. I spent a goo...
Sep 30, 20251 min read
Aggregating Multiple SCD-2 Attribute Timelines in BigQuery
Here’s another practical BigQuery SQL exercise 💡 Say you have an input SCD2-style table with [valid_from, valid_to) and key-value attributes. Now you want to determine which attributes were valid at the same time for a given grain (e.g. id). To do t...
Jun 11, 20251 min read