Commonly used HBase Data Manipulation Shell Commands

Hbase is usually installed on the top of the Hadoop and it uses the Hadoop file system for its storage. Just like other Bigdata framework such as Hive, Pig etc, Hbase provides jruby interactive shell. You can also use various Java API to interact with HBase. In this article, we will check some commonly used HBase Data Manipulation shell commands and explanation on how to use them.

HBase provide many data manipulation shell commands that you can use on the interactive shell to manipulate the data. The Commonly used HBase data manipulation shell commands are: Count, Put, Get, Delete, Delete all, Truncate, Scan.

HBase Count Shell Command

This command will return the number of rows in the table. Note that, it return total number of rows not number of cells.

HBase Count Shell Command Syntax

count <’table name’> CACHE => 1000

The CACHE in above syntax represents, current count is shown per every 1000 rows by default. This CAHCE size is 10 rows by default. HBase count shell command will work fast when it is configured with right Cache size.

HBase Count Shell Command Examples

Below are the HBase count command examples:

hbase(main):002:0> count 'emp'
16 row(s) in 0.1330 seconds
=> 16

hbase(main):004:0> count 'emp', CACHE => 1000
16 row(s) in 0.0090 seconds
=> 16

You can also use the INTERVAL option along with count command.

hbase(main):009:0> count 'store_sales', INTERVAL => 100, CACHE => 1000
Current count: 100, row: 12811
Current count: 200, row: 16367
Current count: 300, row: 349
Current count: 400, row: 6758
Current count: 500, row: 98

509 row(s) in 0.0290 seconds
=> 509

HBase put shell command

This command is used to insert the data into HBase tables.

Read: Insert data into HBase tables using put command and examples

HBase get shell command

This command is used to read the HBase tables.

Read: Read HBase tables using get command and examples

HBase Delete and Deleteall shell command

This command is used to delete the record from the tables. You can Automatically Delete HBase row using Time to Live (TTL) Settings. Automatically expire row options helps you to remove sensitive information from the HBase once that information is used.

Read: Delete HBase row using delete command and examples

HBase Truncate Shell command

Truncate command will re-creates HBase table. This command will first disables the table, drop it and re-create given table.

HBase Scan Shell Command

This command is used to display the content of table.

Read: HBase scan shell command and example

HBase Truncate Shell command Syntax

Below is the syntax:

truncate <’table name’>

HBase Truncate Shell command Examples

Below is the example to truncate HBase table:

hbase(main):011:0> truncate 'test'
Truncating 'test' table (it may take a while):
 - Disabling table...
 - Truncating table...

0 row(s) in 4.5380 seconds