How to load data from Parquet File to BigQuery

Learn how to use Airbyte to synchronize your Parquet File data into BigQuery within minutes.

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Start syncing with Airbyte in 3 easy steps within 10 minutes

Set up a Parquet File connector in Airbyte

Connect to Parquet File or one of 400+ pre-built or 10,000+ custom connectors through simple account authentication.

Set up BigQuery for your extracted Parquet File data

Select BigQuery where you want to import data from your Parquet File source to. You can also choose other cloud data warehouses, databases, data lakes, vector databases, or any other supported Airbyte destinations.

Configure the Parquet File to BigQuery in Airbyte

This includes selecting the data you want to extract - streams and columns -, the sync frequency, where in the destination you want that data to be loaded.

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How to Sync Parquet File to BigQuery Manually

1. Go to the Google Cloud Console: https://console.cloud.google.com/

2. Create a new project or select an existing one.

3. Enable billing for the project if it's not already enabled.

1. Navigate to the "APIs & Services" dashboard.

2. Click on "+ ENABLE APIS AND SERVICES".

3. Search for "BigQuery API" and enable it for your project.

1. Go to the "IAM & Admin" section, then select "Service accounts".

2. Create a new service account with a role that has permissions to access BigQuery (e.g., BigQuery Admin).

3. Create a key for the service account in JSON format and download it.

1. Download and install the Google Cloud SDK from: https://cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/install

2. Initialize the SDK by running `gcloud init` and follow the prompts to authenticate and set your default project.

1. Ensure your Parquet files are accessible. If they are on your local machine, make sure they are in a directory that you can easily navigate to.

2. If the Parquet files are large, consider splitting them into smaller chunks to optimize the upload and import process.

1. Create a new bucket in GCS or use an existing one.

2. Use `gsutil cp` command to upload Parquet files to the bucket:

   ```

   gsutil cp /path/to/your/parquet/files/*.parquet gs://your-bucket-name/parquet-files/

   ```

3. Ensure the files are successfully uploaded to the GCS bucket.

1. In the BigQuery Console, create a new dataset where you will store your imported data.

2. Define a schema for your BigQuery table that corresponds to the schema of your Parquet files. You can define the schema manually or let BigQuery auto-detect it during the import process.

1. In the BigQuery Console, navigate to your dataset.

2. Click on "CREATE TABLE", and in the source section, select "Google Cloud Storage".

3. Enter the GCS URI of your Parquet files (e.g., `gs://your-bucket-name/parquet-files/*.parquet`).

4. Choose "Parquet" as the source data format.

5. Configure the destination table with the appropriate dataset and table name.

6. (Optional) Choose the schema auto-detection if you did not define a schema in Step 7.

7. Click "Create table" to start the import process.

1. After the import process is complete, run some queries in BigQuery to ensure that the data has been imported correctly.

2. Check for any errors or warnings that might have occurred during the import process.

1. If you no longer need the Parquet files in GCS, delete them to avoid incurring storage costs.

2. Remove any unnecessary service account keys and revoke roles that are no longer needed.

By following these steps, you can move data from Parquet files to Google BigQuery without the need for third-party connectors or integrations. Remember to handle your credentials securely and to follow best practices for managing GCP resources.

How to Sync Parquet File to BigQuery Manually - Method 2:

FAQs

ETL, an acronym for Extract, Transform, Load, is a vital data integration process. It involves extracting data from diverse sources, transforming it into a usable format, and loading it into a database, data warehouse or data lake. This process enables meaningful data analysis, enhancing business intelligence.

Parquet File is a columnar storage file format that is designed to store and process large amounts of data efficiently. It is an open-source project that was developed by Cloudera and Twitter. Parquet File is optimized for use with Hadoop and other big data processing frameworks, and it is designed to work well with both structured and unstructured data. The format is highly compressed, which makes it ideal for storing and processing large datasets. Parquet File is also designed to be highly scalable, which means that it can be used to store and process data across multiple nodes in a distributed computing environment.

Parquet File's API gives access to various types of data, including:  

• Structured data: Parquet files can store structured data in a columnar format, making it easy to query and analyze large datasets.  
• Semi-structured data: Parquet files can also store semi-structured data, such as JSON or XML, allowing for more flexibility in data storage.  
• Unstructured data: Parquet files can store unstructured data, such as text or binary data, making it possible to store a wide range of data types in a single file.  
• Big data: Parquet files are designed for big data applications, allowing for efficient storage and processing of large datasets.  
• Machine learning data: Parquet files are commonly used in machine learning applications, as they can store large amounts of data in a format that is optimized for processing by machine learning algorithms.  

Overall, Parquet File's API provides access to a wide range of data types, making it a versatile tool for data storage and analysis in a variety of applications.

This can be done by building a data pipeline manually, usually a Python script (you can leverage a tool as Apache Airflow for this). This process can take more than a full week of development. Or it can be done in minutes on Airbyte in three easy steps: 
1. Set up Parquet File to BigQuery as a source connector (using Auth, or usually an API key)
2. Choose a destination (more than 50 available destination databases, data warehouses or lakes) to sync data too and set it up as a destination connector
3. Define which data you want to transfer from Parquet File to BigQuery and how frequently
You can choose to self-host the pipeline using Airbyte Open Source or have it managed for you with Airbyte Cloud. 

ELT, standing for Extract, Load, Transform, is a modern take on the traditional ETL data integration process. In ELT, data is first extracted from various sources, loaded directly into a data warehouse, and then transformed. This approach enhances data processing speed, analytical flexibility and autonomy.

ETL and ELT are critical data integration strategies with key differences. ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) transforms data before loading, ideal for structured data. In contrast, ELT (Extract, Load, Transform) loads data before transformation, perfect for processing large, diverse data sets in modern data warehouses. ELT is becoming the new standard as it offers a lot more flexibility and autonomy to data analysts.

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