Google launched Flexible Column Names for BigQuery
Using Flexible Column Names for extracting, loading, streaming, and querying
Google just announced the general availability of using flexible column names with BigQuery tables and views for extracting, loading, streaming, and querying data[1].
Normally a BigQuery column name can contain letters (a-z, A-Z), numbers (0–9), or underscores (_), and it must start with a letter or underscore. If you use flexible column names, BigQuery supports starting a column name with a number. Exercise caution when starting columns with a number, since using flexible column names with the BigQuery Storage Read API or BigQuery Storage Write API requires special handling[2].
Now with flexible columns you have more flexibility in what you name columns, including expanded access to characters in languages other than English as well as additional symbols. According to the documentary from Google Flexible column names support the following characters[2]:
- Any letter in any language, as…
