SHOW TABLES¶

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.

See also:

CREATE TABLE , DROP TABLE , UNDROP TABLE , ALTER TABLE , DESCRIBE TABLE

TABLES view (Information Schema)

Syntax¶

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>' ] ]
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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).

Output¶

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 RESULT_SCAN function, which treats the output as a table that can be queried. You can also use the pipe operator to query the output of this command.

  • 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.

Examples¶

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 the tpch_sf1 schema:

SHOW TERSE TABLES IN tpch_sf1 STARTS WITH 'LINE';
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+-------------------------------+----------+-------+-----------------------+-------------+
| 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 the tpch_sf1 schema:

SHOW TERSE TABLES LIKE '%PART%' IN tpch_sf1;
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+-------------------------------+-----------+-------+-----------------------+-------------+
| 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 with J:

SHOW TERSE TABLES IN tpch_sf1 LIMIT 3 FROM 'J';
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+-------------------------------+-----------+-------+-----------------------+-------------+
| 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;
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Use the HISTORY parameter to include dropped tables in the command output:

SHOW TABLES HISTORY LIKE 'test_show_tables_history';
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In the output, the dropped_on column shows the date and time when the table was dropped.

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