How to replace underscores with spaces in BigQuery column names?

Question

I recently loaded a dataset into BigQuery, and all my column names use underscores (_) instead of spaces. For example:

car_type instead of Car Type
customer_name instead of Customer Name

I would like to transform these column names by replacing underscores with spaces, ideally in a query or as part of a transformation step.

I attempted using REPLACE(column_name, '_', ' '), but I am not sure how to apply it to all column names dynamically.

How can I update my column names in BigQuery to replace underscores with spaces while preserving readability? Is there a way to do this dynamically for all columns in a table?

bmargulies' answer is correct, but why do you want to make this change? There is probably a better way to achieve whatever you're going for. As they explain, changing the underscores to spaces is going to be very inconvenient for you in the future. — Brian Dewhirst
– Brian Dewhirst, Commented Feb 7 at 19:24

bmargulies · Accepted Answer · 2025-02-07 19:21:20Z

1

Please see the instructions at https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/managing-table-schemas#change_a_columns_name.

In short:

ALTER TABLE mydataset.mytable
  RENAME COLUMN old_name TO new_name;

you will need to use `` to embed spaces in the new name.

you will be up to your eyeballs in quotes when you use these columns.

answered Feb 7 at 19:21

bmargulies

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