The Cloud Spanner C++ Client library offers types and functions to use Cloud Spanner from C++ applications.
Quickstart
The following "Hello World" program should give you a sense of how to use this library. This program is also used to illustrate how to incorporate the library into your project.
Error Handling to learn how the library reports run-time errors.
Environment Variables for environment variables affecting the library. Some of these environment variables enable logging to the console. This can be an effective approach to diagnose runtime problems.
The Setting up your development environment guide describes how to set up a C++ development environment in various platforms, including the Google Cloud C++ client libraries.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-22 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThis webpage provides documentation for the Cloud Spanner C++ Client library, which enables C++ applications to interact with Cloud Spanner.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest version of the documentation is for 2.37.0-rc, with previous versions listed down to 2.11.0, and all versions provide links to the corresponding documentation.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe library allows execution of SQL queries, read-write transactions, and table row reads through the \u003ccode\u003eClient\u003c/code\u003e class's \u003ccode\u003eExecuteQuery()\u003c/code\u003e, \u003ccode\u003eCommit()\u003c/code\u003e, and \u003ccode\u003eRead()\u003c/code\u003e methods, respectively.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe documentation explains how to handle run-time errors, configure the library using environment variables, override default retry policies, and mock the Cloud Spanner client for testing purposes.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eA quickstart guide is provided, which includes a "Hello World" example program demonstrating basic usage of the library.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["Version 2.18.0keyboard_arrow_down\n\n- [2.42.0-rc (latest)](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/latest)\n- [2.41.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.41.0)\n- [2.40.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.40.0)\n- [2.39.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.39.0)\n- [2.38.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.38.0)\n- [2.37.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.37.0)\n- [2.36.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.36.0)\n- [2.35.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.35.0)\n- [2.34.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.34.0)\n- [2.33.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.33.0)\n- [2.32.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.32.0)\n- [2.31.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.31.0)\n- [2.30.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.30.0)\n- [2.29.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.29.0)\n- [2.28.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.28.0)\n- [2.27.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.27.0)\n- [2.26.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.26.0)\n- [2.25.1](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.25.1)\n- [2.24.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.24.0)\n- [2.23.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.23.0)\n- [2.22.1](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.22.1)\n- [2.21.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.21.0)\n- [2.20.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.20.0)\n- [2.19.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.19.0)\n- [2.18.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.18.0)\n- [2.17.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.17.0)\n- [2.16.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.16.0)\n- [2.15.1](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.15.1)\n- [2.14.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.14.0)\n- [2.13.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.13.0)\n- [2.12.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.12.0)\n- [2.11.0](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.11.0) \n\nCloud Spanner C++ Client Library\n================================\n\nThe Cloud Spanner C++ Client library offers types and functions to use Cloud Spanner from C++ applications.\n\n### Quickstart\n\nThe following \"Hello World\" program should give you a sense of how to use this library. This program is also used to illustrate how to incorporate the library into your project. \n\n #include \"google/cloud/spanner/client.h\"\n #include \u003ciostream\u003e\n\n int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {\n if (argc != 4) {\n std::cerr \u003c\u003c \"Usage: \" \u003c\u003c argv[0]\n \u003c\u003c \" project-id instance-id database-id\\n\";\n return 1;\n }\n\n namespace spanner = ::google::cloud::spanner;\n spanner::Client client(\n spanner::MakeConnection(spanner::Database(argv[1], argv[2], argv[3])));\n\n auto rows =\n client.ExecuteQuery(spanner::SqlStatement(\"SELECT 'Hello World'\"));\n\n for (auto const& row : spanner::StreamOf\u003cstd::tuple\u003cstd::string\u003e\u003e(rows)) {\n if (!row) {\n std::cerr \u003c\u003c row.status() \u003c\u003c \"\\n\";\n return 1;\n }\n std::cout \u003c\u003c std::get\u003c0\u003e(*row) \u003c\u003c \"\\n\";\n }\n\n return 0;\n }\n\n### More Information\n\n- Read more about [Cloud Spanner](https://cloud.google.com/spanner/docs/)\n- [`Client::ExecuteQuery()`](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.18.0/classgoogle_1_1cloud_1_1spanner_1_1Client#classgoogle_1_1cloud_1_1spanner_1_1Client_1a8e2afee42f535c0436d9161c54b84179) to execute SQL queries in Cloud Spanner.\n- [`Client::Commit()`](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.18.0/classgoogle_1_1cloud_1_1spanner_1_1Client#classgoogle_1_1cloud_1_1spanner_1_1Client_1ae83521aef8045ac04b0a5dc85b08a2d9) to execute read-write transactions in Cloud Spanner.\n- [`Client::Read()`](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.18.0/classgoogle_1_1cloud_1_1spanner_1_1Client#classgoogle_1_1cloud_1_1spanner_1_1Client_1a167955c44cd3ccb46ffe07cad6e7e52b) to read the rows in a table.\n- [Error Handling](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.18.0/spanner-error-handling) to learn how the library reports run-time errors.\n- [Environment Variables](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.18.0/spanner-env) for environment variables affecting the library. Some of these environment variables enable logging to the console. This can be an effective approach to diagnose runtime problems.\n- [Override Retry, Backoff, and Re-Run Policies](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.18.0/spanner-retry-policies) to learn how to override the default retry policies used by the library.\n- [Override the default endpoint](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.18.0/spanner-endpoint-example)\n- [Override the authentication configuration](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.18.0/spanner-auth-example)\n- [Mocking the Cloud Spanner C++ Client with Google Mock](/cpp/docs/reference/spanner/2.18.0/spanner-mocking)\n- The [Setting up your development environment](https://cloud.google.com/cpp/docs/setup) guide describes how to set up a C++ development environment in various platforms, including the Google Cloud C++ client libraries."]]