Natively Connect to BigQuery Data in PHP



The CData ODBC driver for BigQuery enables you to create PHP applications with connectivity to BigQuery data. Leverage the native support for ODBC in PHP.

Drop the CData ODBC Driver for BigQuery into your LAMP or WAMP stack to build BigQuery-connected Web applications. This article shows how to use PHP's ODBC built-in functions to connect to BigQuery data, execute queries, and output the results.

About BigQuery Data Integration

CData simplifies access and integration of live Google BigQuery data. Our customers leverage CData connectivity to:

  • Simplify access to BigQuery with broad out-of-the-box support for authentication schemes, including OAuth, OAuth JWT, and GCP Instance.
  • Enhance data workflows with Bi-directional data access between BigQuery and other applications.
  • Perform key BigQuery actions like starting, retrieving, and canceling jobs; deleting tables; or insert job loads through SQL stored procedures.

Most CData customers are using Google BigQuery as their data warehouse and so use CData solutions to migrate business data from separate sources into BigQuery for comprehensive analytics. Other customers use our connectivity to analyze and report on their Google BigQuery data, with many customers using both solutions.

For more details on how CData enhances your Google BigQuery experience, check out our blog post: https://www.cdata.com/blog/what-is-bigquery


Getting Started


Configure a DSN

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Google uses the OAuth authentication standard. To access Google APIs on behalf of individual users, you can use the embedded credentials or you can register your own OAuth app.

OAuth also enables you to use a service account to connect on behalf of users in a Google Apps domain. To authenticate with a service account, you will need to register an application to obtain the OAuth JWT values.

In addition to the OAuth values, you will need to specify the DatasetId and ProjectId. See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.

Establish a Connection

Open the connection to BigQuery by calling the odbc_connect or odbc_pconnect methods. To close connections, use odbc_close or odbc_close_all.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC GoogleBigQuery Source","user","password");

Connections opened with odbc_connect are closed when the script ends. Connections opened with the odbc_pconnect method are still open after the script ends. This enables other scripts to share that connection when they connect with the same credentials. By sharing connections among your scripts, you can save system resources, and queries execute faster.

$conn = odbc_pconnect("CData ODBC GoogleBigQuery Source","user","password"); ... odbc_close($conn); //persistent connection must be closed explicitly

Create Prepared Statements

Create prepared statements and parameterized queries with the odbc_prepare function.

$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE ShipCity = ?");

Execute Queries

Execute prepared statements with odbc_execute.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC GoogleBigQuery Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE ShipCity = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('New York'));

Execute nonparameterized queries with odbc_exec.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC GoogleBigQuery Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT OrderName, Freight FROM Orders");

Process Results

Access a row in the result set as an array with the odbc_fetch_array function.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC BigQuery data Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT OrderName, Freight FROM Orders"); while($row = odbc_fetch_array($query)){ echo $row["OrderName"] . "\n"; }

Display the result set in an HTML table with the odbc_result_all function.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC BigQuery data Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE ShipCity = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('New York')); if($success) odbc_result_all($query);

More Example Queries

You will find complete information on the driver's supported SQL in the help documentation. The code examples above are BigQuery-specific adaptations of the PHP community documentation for all ODBC functions.

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the Google BigQuery ODBC Driver to get started:

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Learn more:

Google BigQuery Icon Google BigQuery ODBC Driver

The Google BigQuery ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live Google BigQuery data, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Google BigQuery like you would a database - read, write, and update Datasets, Tables, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.