This code sample is a "hello world" application written in Java, using the Bigtable client library for Java. The sample illustrates how to complete the following tasks:

• Set up authentication
• Connect to a Bigtable instance.
• Create a new table.
• Write data to the table.
• Read the data back.
• Delete the table.

Running the sample

This code communicates with Bigtable using the Bigtable client library in the Google Cloud client libraries for Java.

Before you begin, follow the setup steps described in the reference documentation.

Using the Cloud Client Libraries with Bigtable

The sample application connects to Bigtable and demonstrates some basic operations.

Connecting to Bigtable

To get started, you need a data client that you use to communicate with the data API client library and a table admin client that you use to communicate with the admin API client library.

First, instantiate a BigtableDataSettings object that includes the project ID and instance ID that the hello world application will use. Then pass the settings to the BigtableDataClient.create() method to create the data client.

Similarly, for the admin client, first establish the settings by creating a BigtableTableAdminSettings object, then use the settings to create a BigtableTableAdminClient object.

As a best practice, when you use Bigtable you should always create a client once and reuse it throughout the application.

Creating a table

To create a table, build a CreateTableRequest object and pass it to the admin client's createTable() method.

Writing rows to a table

Create a greetings[] string array containing three greetings, to use as a source of data to write to the table. Loop through the array. In each iteration of the loop, create a RowMutation object and use the setCell() method to add an entry to the mutation.

Reading a row by its row key

Use the data client's readRow() method to read the first row that you wrote.

Scanning all table rows

Next, scan the entire table. Create a Query object, pass it to the readRows() method, and assign the results to a row stream.

Deleting a table

Finally, delete the table with the deleteTable() method.

Putting it all together

Here is the full code sample without comments.