---
title: "SourceTable"
description: "one table of a read artefact: its count with its exactness, its population and the control that must come back right at the same hash"
section: concepts
address: /concepts/sourcetable
contract: 0476e35e6e275db5
---

# SourceTable

one table of a read artefact: its count with its exactness, its population and the control that must come back right at the same hash

[figure: SourceTable is a value at none scope. The drawing shows its fields and the objects that they point at.]

| property | value |
|---|---|
| kind | value |
| scope | none |
| key | none |
| store | none |
| family | sources |



## Fields


| field | type | required | note |
|---|---|---|---|
| `schema` | `text` | yes |  |
| `table` | `text` | yes |  |
| `kind` | `one of table \| view \| file` | yes |  |
| `rows` | `count` | no | absent when the count was not read in the bound |
| `exactness` | `one of exact \| estimated \| not read in the bound` | yes |  |
| `columns` | [SourceColumn](/concepts/sourcecolumn) | no | absent when the reading did not list them |
| `population` | `text` | yes | what one row is |
| `control` | `text` | yes | the known count or row that must come back right at the same file hash: rows=<count>, bytes=<count>, or marker=<file>:<key> for a completion marker whose JSON names the count |
| `read_at` | `time` | yes |  |
| `files` | [LakeFile](/concepts/lakefile) | no | for a table that is a folder of files: each file with its hash, its bytes and its rows where read |
| `definition` | `text` | no | for a view of a catalogue: its definition as the engine states it, which is the rule that made the derived table; the files the definition reads are the table's files, and the rule is recorded on the procedure at every reading |



## Routes that use it
No route takes or returns SourceTable directly. The record holds it, and the objects that point at it reach it.