Standard Universal Analytics (UA) properties stopped processing data on July 1, 2023. UA 360 properties will stop processing data on July 1, 2024, and some UA 360 features will be deprecated before then, as we migrate to Google Analytics 4. Use the Data API to access the reporting features for GA4 properties.

Columns: list

Lists all columns for a report type. Try it now or see an example.

Request

HTTP request

GET https://www.googleapis.com/analytics/v3/metadata/reportType/columns

Parameters

Parameter name	Value	Description
Required parameters
`reportType`	`string`	Report type. Allowed Values: `ga`. Where `ga` corresponds to the Core Reporting API.

Request body

Do not supply a request body with this method.

Response

If successful, this method returns a response body with the following structure:

{
  "kind": "analytics#columns",
  "etag": etag,
  "totalResults": integer,
  "attributeNames": [
    string
  ],
  "items": [
    metadata.columns Resource
  ]
}

Property name	Value	Description
`kind`	`string`	Collection type.
`etag`	`etag`	Etag of collection. This etag can be compared with the last response etag to check if response has changed.
`totalResults`	`integer`	Total number of columns returned in the response.
`attributeNames[]`	`list`	List of attributes names returned by columns.
`items[]`	`list`	List of columns for the report type.

Examples

Note: The code examples available for this method do not represent all supported programming languages (see the client libraries page for a list of supported languages).

Java

Uses the Java client library

/**
 * 1. Execute a Metadata Request
 * An application can request columns data by calling the list method on the Analytics service object.
 * The method requires an reportType parameter that specifies the column data to retrieve.
 * For example, the following code requests columns for the ga report type.
 */

try {
  Columns results = getMetadata(analytics);
  // Success

} catch (GoogleJsonResponseException e) {
  // Catch API specific errors.
  handleApiError(e);
} catch (IOException e) {
  // Catch general parsing network errors.
  e.printStackTrace();
}

/**
 * 2. Print out the Columns data
 * The components of the result can be printed out as follows:
 */

private static Columns getMetadata(Analytics analytics) throws IOException {
  String reportType = "ga";
  return analytics.metadata()
      .columns()
      .list(reportType)
      .execute();
}


private static void printMetadataReport(Columns results) {
  System.out.println("Metadata Response Report");
  printReportInfo(results);
  printAttributes(results.getAttributeNames());
  printColumns(results.getItems());
}


private static void printReportInfo(Columns results) {
  System.out.println("## Metadata Report Info ##");
  System.out.println("Kind: " + results.getKind());
  System.out.println("Etag: " + results.getEtag());
  System.out.println("Total Results: " + results.getTotalResults());
  System.out.println();
}


private static void printAttributes(List<String> attributeNames) {
  System.out.println("## Attribute Names ##");
  for (String attribute : attributeNames) {
    System.out.println(attribute);
  }
}


private static void printColumns(List<Column> columns) {
  System.out.println("## Columns ##");

  for (Column column : columns) {
    System.out.println();
    System.out.println("Column ID: " + column.getId());
    System.out.println("Kind: " + column.getKind());

    Map<String, String> columnAttributes = column.getAttributes();

    for (Map.Entry<String, String> attribute: columnAttributes.entrySet()) {
      System.out.println(attribute.getKey() + ": " + attribute.getValue());
    }
  }
}

PHP

Uses the PHP client library

/**
 * 1. Execute a Metadata Request
 * An application can request columns data by calling the list method on the Analytics service object.
 * The method requires an reportType parameter that specifies the column data to retrieve.
 * For example, the following code requests columns for the ga report type.
 */

try {

  $results = $analytics->metadata_columns->listMetadataColumns('ga');
  // Success

} catch (apiServiceException $e) {
  // Handle API service exceptions.
  $error = $e->getMessage();
}


/**
 * 2. Print out the Columns data
 * The components of the result can be printed out as follows:
 */

function printMetadataReport($results) {
  print '<h1>Metadata Report</h1>';
  printReportInfo($results);
  printAttributes($results);
  printColumns($results);
}


function printReportInfo(&$results) {
  $html = '<h2>Report Info</h2>';
  $html .= <<<HTML
<pre>
Kind                  = {$results->getKind()}
Etag                  = {$results->getEtag()}
Total Results         = {$results->getTotalResults()}
</pre>
HTML;
  print $html;
}


function printAttributes(&$results) {
  $html = '<h2>Attribute Names</h2><ul>';
  $attributes = $results->getAttributeNames();
  foreach ($attributes as $attribute) {
    $html .= '<li>'. $attribute . '</li>';
  }
  $html .= '</ul>';
  print $html;
}


function printColumns(&$results) {
  $columns = $results->getItems();
  if (count($columns) > 0) {
    $html = '<h2>Columns</h2>';
    foreach ($columns as $column) {
      $html .= '<h3>' . $column->getId() . '</h3>';
      $column_attributes = $column->getAttributes();
      foreach ($column_attributes as $name=>$value) {
        $html .= <<<HTML
<pre>
{$name}: {$value}
</pre>
HTML;
      }
    }
  } else {
    $html = '<p>No Results Found.</p>';
  }
  print $html;
}

Python

Uses the Python client library

# 1. Execute a Metadata Request
# An application can request columns data by calling the list method on the Analytics service object.
# The method requires an reportType parameter that specifies the column data to retrieve.
# For example, the following code requests columns for the ga report type.

try:
  results = service.metadata().columns().list(reportType='ga').execute()

except TypeError, error:
  # Handle errors in constructing a query.
  print ('There was an error in constructing your query : %s' % error)

except HttpError, error:
  # Handle API errors.
  print ('Arg, there was an API error : %s : %s' %
         (error.resp.status, error._get_reason()))

# 2. Print out the Columns data
# The components of the result can be printed out as follows:

def print_metadata_report(results):
  print 'Metadata Response Report'
  print_report_info(results)
  print_attributes(results.get('attributeNames'))
  print_columns(results)


def print_report_info(columns):
  print "Metadata Report Info"
  if columns:
    print 'Kind           = %s' % columns.get('kind')
    print 'Etag           = %s' % columns.get('etag')
    print 'Total Results  = %s' % columns.get('totalResults')


def print_attributes(attributes):
  if attributes:
    print 'Attribute Names:'
    for attribute in attributes:
      print attribute

def print_columns(columns_data):
  if columns_data:
    print 'Columns:'

    columns = columns_data.get('items', [])

    for column in columns:
      print
      print '%15s = %35s' % ('Column ID', column.get('id'))
      print '%15s = %35s' % ('Kind', column.get('kind'))

      column_attributes = column.get('attributes', [])

      for name, value in column_attributes.iteritems():
        print '%15s = %35s' % (name, value)

JavaScript

Uses the JavaScript client library

/**
 * 1. Execute a Metadata Request
 * An application can request columns data by calling the list method on the Analytics service object.
 * The method requires an reportType parameter that specifies the column data to retrieve.
 * For example, the following code requests columns for the ga report type.
 */

function makeMetadataRequest() {
  var request = gapi.client.analytics.metadata.columns.list({
      'reportType': 'ga'
  });
  request.execute(renderMetadataReport);
}


/**
 * 2. Print out the Columns data
 * The components of the result can be printed out as follows:
 */

function renderMetadataReport(results) {
  var reportHtml = [];
  reportHtml.push(
      getReportInfo(results),
      getAttributes(results),
      getColumns(results));

  // Renders the results to a DIV element
  document.getElementById('DIV_ID').innerHTML = reportHtml.join('');
}


function getReportInfo(results) {
  var html = [];
  if (results) {
    html.push('<h2>Report Info</h2>');
    html.push('<pre>Kind: ', results.kind, '</pre>');
    html.push('<pre>Etag: ', results.etag, '</pre>');
    html.push('<pre>Total Results: ', results.totalResults, '</pre>');
  }
  return html.join('');
}


function getAttributes(results) {
  var html = [];
  if (results) {
    html.push('<h2>Attribute Names</h2><ul>');
    var attributes = results.attributeNames;

    for (var i = 0, attribute; attribute = attributes[i]; i++) {
      html.push('<li>', attribute, '</li>');
    }
    html.push('</ul>');
  }
  return html.join('');
}

function  getColumns(results) {
  var html = [];
  if (results) {
    var columns = results.items;
    html.push('<h2>Columns</h2>');

    for (var i = 0, column; column = columns[i]; i++) {
      html.push('<h3>', column.id, '</h3>');
      var attributes = column.attributes;
      for (attribute in attributes) {
        html.push('<pre><strong>', attribute, '</strong> : ',
                  attributes[attribute], '</pre>');
      }
    }
  }
  return html.join('');
}

Try it!

Use the APIs Explorer below to call this method on live data and see the response. Alternatively, try the standalone Explorer.