Tables

1 - Tables management

Learn how to use table management commands to display, create, and alter tables.

This topic discusses the life cycle of tables and associated management commands that are helpful for exploring, creating and altering tables.

Select the links in the table below for more information about them.

For information on optimizing table schema, see Schema optimization best practices.

Commands	Operation
`.alter table docstring`, `.alter table folder`	Manage table display properties
`.create ingestion mapping`, `.show ingestion mappings`, `.alter ingestion mapping`, `.drop ingestion mapping`	Manage ingestion mapping
`.create tables`, `.create table`, `.create-merge tables`, `.create-merge table`, `.alter table`, `.alter-merge table`, `.drop tables`, `.drop table`, `.undo drop table`, `.rename table`	Create/modify/drop tables
`.show tables` `.show table details.show table schema`	Enumerate tables in a database
`.ingest`, `.set`, `.append`, `.set-or-append` (see Data ingestion overview).	Data ingestion into a table
`.clear table data`	Clears all the data of a table

(See full details in the sections linked to in the table, above.)

Command syntax	Semantics
`.create entityType entityName ...`	If an entity of that type and name exists, returns the entity. Otherwise, create the entity.
`.create-merge entityType entityName...`	If an entity of that type and name exists, merge the existing entity with the specified entity. Otherwise, create the entity.
`.alter entityType entityName ...`	If an entity of that type and name does not exist, error. Otherwise, replace it with the specified entity.
`.alter-merge entityType entityName ...`	If an entity of that type and name does not exist, error. Otherwise, merge it with the specified entity.
`.drop entityType entityName ...`	If an entity of that type and name does not exist, error. Otherwise, drop it.
`.drop entityType entityName ifexists ...`	If an entity of that type and name does not exist, return. Otherwise, drop it.