Data Lineage in BigQuery
BigQuery now introduces a Lineage tab in the console (as a preview feature) which lets you how your data moves and transforms through BigQuery.
Data lineage is the process of tracking the movement of data from its origin to its destination, including its transformation and storage along the way. It is a critical aspect of data management, as it provides a clear understanding of the relationships between different data elements and the processes that have been applied to them. This is important for a number of reasons:
- Data quality: Data lineage helps ensure the accuracy and integrity of data by providing a clear record of its transformation and storage. It allows organizations to trace the origin of data and understand how it has been modified, so they can identify and correct any errors or inconsistencies.
- Compliance: Many industries have strict regulations regarding the handling and processing of data, and data lineage can help organizations meet these requirements by providing a clear record of data movement and transformation.
- Auditability: Data lineage can be used to demonstrate compliance with internal and external policies and regulations, as well as to provide a clear record of data movement for auditing purposes.
- Data governance: Data lineage is an important part of data governance, as it helps organizations understand the relationships between different data elements and ensure that data is being used appropriately.
Overall, data lineage is important because it helps organizations maintain the integrity and quality of their data, and ensure that they are using it in a responsible and compliant manner.
Now you can enable Data Lineage in Bigquery (It is a preview feature, as of Dec 2022)
Enabling data lineage in your BigQuery project causes Dataplex to automatically record lineage information for tables created by the following operations:
- Copy jobs.
- Query jobs that use the following data definition language (DDL) or data manipulation language (DML) statements in Google Standard SQL:
- CREATE TABLE (including the CREATE TABLE AS SELECT statement)
- INSERT
- UPDATE
- DELETE
- MERGE
This is a cool feature that helps easily tracks the lineage from the console, now end users can see whats going on behind the scenes. Transparency brought by this feature help tremendously while debugging and identifying an issue.
You can click on the BigQuery icon to understand the SQL & Transformation.
It is an Preview feature as of Dec 2022, Hope this article is helpful in showcasing the new feature in BigQuery.
