BigQuery identity columns to auto-generate sequential integers

To further empower our customers in their data journey, we are excited to announce the launch of identity columns in BigQuery. This new feature allows users to define columns that automatically generate sequential 64-bit integer values, simplifying the way you manage unique identifiers within your tables.

Data engineers are always looking for ways to make data ingestion smoother and more reliable. BigQuery identity columns offer a powerful, built-in mechanism to automatically generate unique numerical values for your tables. By shifting the responsibility of ID generation to BigQuery, you can significantly reduce the complexity of your data pipelines and focus on delivering insights.

Key benefits for your data pipelines

Implementing identity columns provides several advantages that help streamline the development and maintenance of your data architecture.

• Streamlined ingestion: You can now ingest data without needing to pre-calculate unique keys in your application logic or ETL tools.

• Reduced boilerplate: By using auto-generated sequences, your SQL code becomes cleaner and easier to maintain, as the database handles key management natively.

• Integrated automation: Identity columns work harmoniously with standard DML operations, ensuring that every new row receives a unique identifier automatically.

• Flexible integration: Whether you are using INSERT or MERGE statements, identity columns adapt to your existing workflow.

How to implement identity columns

Setting up an identity column is simple and can be done directly within your CREATE TABLE statement. You have two primary ways to define how these values are handled.

Definition options

Example usage
The following SQL statement demonstrates how to create a table that automatically increments IDs, starting at 1 and increasing by one for each new entry.