Lists the tables for which you have access privileges, including dropped tables that are still within the Time Travel retention period and, therefore, can be undropped. The command can be used to list tables for the current/specified database or schema, or across your entire account.
The output returns table metadata and properties, ordered lexicographically by database, schema, and table name (see Output in this topic for descriptions of the output columns). This is important to note if you want to filter the results using the provided filters.
CREATE TABLE , DROP TABLE , UNDROP TABLE , ALTER TABLE , DESCRIBE TABLE
TABLES view (Information Schema)
SHOW [ TERSE ] TABLES [ HISTORY ] [ LIKE '<pattern>' ] [ IN { ACCOUNT | DATABASE | DATABASE <database_name> | SCHEMA | SCHEMA <schema_name> | <schema_name> APPLICATION <application_name> | APPLICATION PACKAGE <application_package_name> | } ] [ STARTS WITH '<name_string>' ] [ LIMIT <rows> [ FROM '<name_string>' ] ]
Copy
Parameters¶TERSE
Optionally returns only a subset of the output columns:
created_on
name
kind
The kind
column value is always TABLE.
database_name
schema_name
Default: No value (all columns are included in the output)
HISTORY
Optionally includes dropped tables that have not yet been purged (i.e. they are still within their respective Time Travel retention periods). If multiple versions of a dropped table exist, the output displays a row for each version. The output also includes an additional dropped_on
column, which displays:
Date and timestamp (for dropped tables).
NULL
(for active tables).
Default: No value (dropped tables are not included in the output)
LIKE 'pattern'
Optionally filters the command output by object name. The filter uses case-insensitive pattern matching, with support for SQL wildcard characters (%
and _
).
For example, the following patterns return the same results:
... LIKE '%testing%' ...
... LIKE '%TESTING%' ...
. Default: No value (no filtering is applied to the output).
[ IN ... ]
Optionally specifies the scope of the command. Specify one of the following:
ACCOUNT
Returns records for the entire account.
DATABASE
, . DATABASE db_name
Returns records for the current database in use or for a specified database (db_name
).
If you specify DATABASE
without db_name
and no database is in use, the keyword has no effect on the output.
Note
Using SHOW commands without an IN
clause in a database context can result in fewer than expected results.
Objects with the same name are only displayed once if no IN
clause is used. For example, if you have table t1
in schema1
and table t1
in schema2
, and they are both in scope of the database context you’ve specified (that is, the database you’ve selected is the parent of schema1
and schema2
), then SHOW TABLES only displays one of the t1
tables.
SCHEMA
, . SCHEMA schema_name
Returns records for the current schema in use or a specified schema (schema_name
).
SCHEMA
is optional if a database is in use or if you specify the fully qualified schema_name
(for example, db.schema
).
If no database is in use, specifying SCHEMA
has no effect on the output.
APPLICATION application_name
, . APPLICATION PACKAGE application_package_name
Returns records for the named Snowflake Native App or application package.
Default: Depends on whether the session currently has a database in use:
Database: DATABASE
is the default (that is, the command returns the objects you have privileges to view in the database).
No database: ACCOUNT
is the default (that is, the command returns the objects you have privileges to view in your account).
STARTS WITH 'name_string'
Optionally filters the command output based on the characters that appear at the beginning of the object name. The string must be enclosed in single quotes and is case sensitive.
For example, the following strings return different results:
... STARTS WITH 'B' ...
... STARTS WITH 'b' ...
. Default: No value (no filtering is applied to the output)
LIMIT rows [ FROM 'name_string' ]
Optionally limits the maximum number of rows returned, while also enabling “pagination” of the results. The actual number of rows returned might be less than the specified limit. For example, the number of existing objects is less than the specified limit.
The optional FROM 'name_string'
subclause effectively serves as a “cursor” for the results. This enables fetching the specified number of rows following the first row whose object name matches the specified string:
The string must be enclosed in single quotes and is case sensitive.
The string does not have to include the full object name; partial names are supported.
Default: No value (no limit is applied to the output)
Note
For SHOW commands that support both the FROM 'name_string'
and STARTS WITH 'name_string'
clauses, you can combine both of these clauses in the same statement. However, both conditions must be met or they cancel out each other and no results are returned.
In addition, objects are returned in lexicographic order by name, so FROM 'name_string'
only returns rows with a higher lexicographic value than the rows returned by STARTS WITH 'name_string'
.
For example:
... STARTS WITH 'A' LIMIT ... FROM 'B'
would return no results.
... STARTS WITH 'B' LIMIT ... FROM 'A'
would return no results.
... STARTS WITH 'A' LIMIT ... FROM 'AB'
would return results (if any rows match the input strings).
The command output provides table properties and metadata in the following columns:
Column
Description
created_on
Date and time when the table was created.
name
Name of the table.
database_name
Database in which the table is stored.
schema_name
Schema in which the table is stored.
kind
Table type: TABLE (for permanent tables), TEMPORARY, or TRANSIENT.
comment
Comment for the table.
cluster_by
Column(s) defined as clustering key(s) for the table.
rows
Number of rows in the table. Returns NULL for external tables.
bytes
Number of bytes that will be scanned if the entire table is scanned in a query. Note that this number may be different than the number of actual physical bytes (i.e. bytes stored on-disk) for the table.
owner
Role that owns the table.
retention_time
Number of days that modified and deleted data is retained for Time Travel.
dropped_on
Date and time when the table was dropped; NULL if the table is active. This column is only displayed when the HISTORY keyword is specified for the command.
automatic_clustering
If Automatic Clustering is enabled for your account, specifies whether it is explicitly enabled (ON
) or disabled (OFF
) for the table. This column is not displayed if Automatic Clustering is not enabled for your account.
change_tracking
If ON
, change tracking is enabled. You can query this change tracking data using streams or the CHANGES clause for SELECT statements. If OFF
, change tracking is currently disabled but could be enabled.
search_optimization
If ON
, the table has the search optimization service enabled. Otherwise, the value is OFF
.
search_optimization_progress
Percentage of the table that has been optimized for search. This value increases when optimization is first added to a table and when maintenance is done on the search optimization service. Before you measure the performance improvement of search optimization on a newly-optimized table, wait until this shows that the table has been fully optimized.
search_optimization_bytes
Number of additional bytes of storage that the search optimization service consumes for this table.
is_external
Y
if it is an external table; N
otherwise.
enable_schema_evolution
Y
if the table has schema evolution enabled; N
otherwise. You can enable automatic table schema evolution by using the CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE commands.
owner_role_type
The type of role that owns the object, for example ROLE
. . If a Snowflake Native App owns the object, the value is APPLICATION
. . Snowflake returns NULL if you delete the object because a deleted object does not have an owner role.
is_event
Y
if it is an event table; N
otherwise.
is_hybrid
Y
if it is a hybrid table; N
otherwise.
is_iceberg
Y
if the table is an Apache Iceberg™ table; N
otherwise.
is_immutable
Y
if the table was created with the READ ONLY property; N
otherwise.
For more information about the properties that can be specified for a table, see CREATE TABLE.
Note
For cloned tables and tables with deleted data, the bytes
displayed for the table may be different than the number of physical bytes for the table:
A cloned table does not utilize additional data storage until new rows are added to the table or existing rows in the table are modified or deleted. If few or no changes have been made to the table, the number of bytes displayed is more than the actual physical bytes stored for the table.
Data deleted from a table is maintained in Snowflake until both the Time Travel retention period (default is 1 day) and Fail-safe period (7 days) for the data have passed. During these two periods, the number of bytes displayed is less than the actual physical bytes stored for the table.
For more detailed information about table size in bytes as it relates to cloning, Time Travel, and Fail-safe, see the TABLE_STORAGE_METRICS Information Schema view.
Usage notes¶If an account (or database or schema) has a large number of tables, then searching the entire account (or table or schema) can consume a significant amount of compute resources.
In the output, results are sorted by database name, schema name, and then table name. This means results for a database can contain tables from multiple schemas and might break pagination. In order for pagination to work as expected, you must execute the SHOW TABLES command for a single schema. You can use the IN SCHEMA schema_name
parameter to the SHOW TABLES command. Alternatively, you can use the schema in the current context by executing a USE SCHEMA command before executing a SHOW TABLES command.
The command doesn’t require a running warehouse to execute.
The command only returns objects for which the current user’s current role has been granted at least one access privilege.
The MANAGE GRANTS access privilege implicitly allows its holder to see every object in the account. By default, only the account administrator (users with the ACCOUNTADMIN role) and security administrator (users with the SECURITYADMIN role) have the MANAGE GRANTS privilege.
To post-process the output of this command, you can use the pipe operator or the RESULT_SCAN function. Both constructs treat the output as a result set that you can query.
The value for LIMIT rows
can’t exceed 10000
. If LIMIT rows
is omitted, the command results in an error if the result set is larger than ten thousand rows.
To view results for which more than ten thousand records exist, either include LIMIT rows
or query the corresponding view in the Snowflake Information Schema.
These examples show all of the tables that you have privileges to view based on the specified parameters.
Run SHOW TABLES on tables in the Sample Data Sets. The examples use the TERSE parameter to limit the output.
Show all the tables with a name that starts with
LINE
in thetpch_sf1
schema:SHOW TERSE TABLES IN tpch_sf1 STARTS WITH 'LINE';Copy
+-------------------------------+----------+-------+-----------------------+-------------+ | created_on | name | kind | database_name | schema_name | |-------------------------------+----------+-------+-----------------------+-------------| | 2016-07-08 13:41:59.960 -0700 | LINEITEM | TABLE | SNOWFLAKE_SAMPLE_DATA | TPCH_SF1 | +-------------------------------+----------+-------+-----------------------+-------------+Show all of the tables with a name that includes the substring
PART
in thetpch_sf1
schema:SHOW TERSE TABLES LIKE '%PART%' IN tpch_sf1;Copy
+-------------------------------+-----------+-------+-----------------------+-------------+ | created_on | name | kind | database_name | schema_name | |-------------------------------+-----------+-------+-----------------------+-------------| | 2016-07-08 13:41:59.960 -0700 | JPART | TABLE | SNOWFLAKE_SAMPLE_DATA | TPCH_SF1 | | 2016-07-08 13:41:59.960 -0700 | JPARTSUPP | TABLE | SNOWFLAKE_SAMPLE_DATA | TPCH_SF1 | | 2016-07-08 13:41:59.960 -0700 | PART | TABLE | SNOWFLAKE_SAMPLE_DATA | TPCH_SF1 | | 2016-07-08 13:41:59.960 -0700 | PARTSUPP | TABLE | SNOWFLAKE_SAMPLE_DATA | TPCH_SF1 | +-------------------------------+-----------+-------+-----------------------+-------------+Show the tables in the
tpch_sf1
schema, but limit the output to three rows, and start with the table names that begin withJ
:SHOW TERSE TABLES IN tpch_sf1 LIMIT 3 FROM 'J';Copy
+-------------------------------+-----------+-------+-----------------------+-------------+ | created_on | name | kind | database_name | schema_name | |-------------------------------+-----------+-------+-----------------------+-------------| | 2016-07-08 13:41:59.960 -0700 | JCUSTOMER | TABLE | SNOWFLAKE_SAMPLE_DATA | TPCH_SF1 | | 2016-07-08 13:41:59.960 -0700 | JLINEITEM | TABLE | SNOWFLAKE_SAMPLE_DATA | TPCH_SF1 | | 2016-07-08 13:41:59.960 -0700 | JNATION | TABLE | SNOWFLAKE_SAMPLE_DATA | TPCH_SF1 | +-------------------------------+-----------+-------+-----------------------+-------------+
Show a dropped table using the HISTORY parameter.
Create a table in your current schema, then drop it:
CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE test_show_tables_history(c1 NUMBER); DROP TABLE test_show_tables_history;Copy
Use the HISTORY parameter to include dropped tables in the command output:
SHOW TABLES HISTORY LIKE 'test_show_tables_history';Copy
In the output, the
dropped_on
column shows the date and time when the table was dropped.
RetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo | Open a GitHub Issue
Search and Browse the WWW like it's 1997 | Search results from DuckDuckGo
HTML:
3.2
| Encoding:
UTF-8
| Version:
0.7.4