Using The Xano Database

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👨‍🏭 Create a Database Table

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ℹ️ Navigating the Table View

Let’s start with the top control bar. Just below the control bar, you’ll see your database records. Use your mouse or arrow keys to navigate between records and individual cells. To modify data, just select the cell and make your desired changes. They will be saved automatically. Select one or more records by checking these boxes Open a card view of the selected record Add a new field

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➕ Adding a new field

Click the plus sign to add a new field, and choose the type of field you want to add from the panel that opens. After you’ve selected your desired field type, you will be presented with a number of options. You can review each one of them and what they mean below.

Setting	Required?	Description
Name	☑️	The name of the field you are creating
Description	☐	Add additional details here
Data Structure	☑️	Single - Each record will only store one value in this field. This is the more common selection. List - Each record can hold multiple values in this field. For example, if this was a table of authors, we might have a field that can store multiple books for each author.
Allow Nullable Values	☐	A null value is similar to an empty value in that it represents “nothing is here”, but it’s still an actual value written to the record. Useful if you need to specifically check whether or not that field has data stored.
Format	☐	For some field types, you can specify a format. This does not change the actual data being stored and is only used to enable easier viewing and editing for you inside of the table view.
Default Value	☐	When adding new records, you can automatically populate a default value **Note: **If your field allows nullable values, they will auto-apply null to new records as a default value. Adding ‘null’ to the default value field manually will be processed as text and have unintended results.

Setting	Required?	Description
Required	☐	Determines whether or not this field is required when adding a record
Sensitive Data	☐	Hide the contents of this field from certain areas, such as request history
Column Visibility	☐	Public - The field will be available as an input Private - This field will not appear in inputs Internal - Hide this field from API inputs and responses
Custom Rules & Filters	☐	See below.

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Custom Rules & Filters

For each field, you can apply various rules and filters to ensure that the data is stored in the format that you expect.

Filter Name	Purpose
min	Enforces a minimum number of required characters
max	Enforces a maximum number of required characters
startsWith	Enforces a prefix
endsWith	Enforces a suffix
prevent	Blacklists phrases
lower	Stores the value in all lowercase
upper	Stores the value in all uppercase
alphaOk	Whitelist certain alphanumeric characters
digitOk	Whitelist certain numbers
ok	Whitelist certain characters
pattern	Enforce a regex pattern

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⚙️ Field Options

Right-click on the header of a field to access field-related settings and make adjustments to the options already detailed above, as well as some additional controls. Rename this field Access field settings (the options detailed earlier in this document) Make a copy of this column Insert a new column directly after the selected column Reorder your database fields. This does not impact how the data is returned in your function stacks. Change the data type of the column Delete the column

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🔢 Adding Data

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Generate Test Data using AI

After you’ve created your database schema, you can generate some sample data to use right away by clicking Generate Records. This option is located at the bottom of your database records — so, if you have no records, you should see it right at the top. The record generation will look at the name and the data type for each of your fields and try to auto-suggest what they should be filled with. You can click on one of those data types to change what that field is populated with, or specific settings related to that data type. In the bottom-right corner, you can change the number of records generated, up to 100 at a time. When you’re ready, click “Generate” and you should see your new sample data populated. You can always generate more records if you’d like.

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Adding Data Manually

Click **Add New Record **at the bottom of your existing records (if any) to add a new record. The record will be created using any default values you’ve specified in the field options, and you can click on each cell to fill it in manually. You can also click the two arrows icon to open up the card view and fil in multiple, or all fields at once when creating a new record.

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⚙️ Additional Table Settings

Click the settings icon in the top-right corner to access table settings after creation, including both settings detailed earlier in this document, as well as some additional options.

Setting Name	Description
Authentication	Determines whether or not this table is used for user authentication.
Security	Change the table GUID.
Versions	Xano maintains a version history of your table schema. You can roll back to a previous version of your schema if you’ve made changes that you want to undo. Note: This does not change the data in your table, only the fields. If you need to restore a backup of your table data, see this document.
Triggers	Access your database triggers.
Auto-complete	Access your auto-complete settings.
Clear all records	Deletes all records in the table. You can also choose to reset the primary ID back to 1 on tables that use a sequential ID.
Clone table	Cloning copies the table schema. Cloning does not copy existing data.
Export data	Export your table data using the current view as a CSV
Import data	Import records from a CSV 📖Learn More

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Table Format

Your tables can be created using one of two formats:

• JSONB format
  • This creates your tables with two columns:
    • id - the ID of the record
    • jsonb - contains a JSON representation of the entire record
• Standard SQL format
  • This creates a more standard table layout. Instead of a jsonb column, each column is written separately.

If you are using the Direct Database Connector, Standard SQL format is usually recommended.

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When to Convert to Standard SQL Format:

• You need direct database connections with third-party tools that aren’t friendly to JSONB format, such as Tableau or PowerBI
• You want faster performance for non-indexed queries
• You’re frequently adding new fields (faster column additions)
• You plan to use SQL analytics tools or run complex reports directly against your database

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When to Keep JSONB Format:

• You’re satisfied with current performance
• You don’t need direct database connections

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Converting Tables from JSONB to standard SQL

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Custom SQL Table Names

From your Workspace settings, you can enable Custom SQL Table Names. By default, Xano assigns each table a SQL name in the format mvpw_ (e.g., mvpw1_3). This identifier works for direct access, but can be difficult to read or use with direct queries and database tools. You can replace this with a custom SQL name to make queries more intuitive and improve compatibility with external connectors. If you change a table’s SQL name, be sure to update any queries that reference the old name to avoid breaking functionality. Once you’ve enabled Custom SQL Table Names, head to any database table’s settings, and click Manage next to SQL Table Name.

- Leave the SQL Table Name field blank to use Xano’s default SQL table name, which follows the format mvpw<workspaceID>_<tableID> (e.g., mvpw1_3). - SQL table names must be globally unique across all workspaces. Hint: Use the Custom Prefix to ensure uniqueness across workspaces. - Datasources automatically add a suffix based on their environment. For example, users becomes users_test in the test datasource.* To reuse the same base name across workspaces, use a workspace -specific prefix (e.g., projA_users, projB_users).