Want to use Cassandra successfully? Your data model may be the most important factor! While Cassandra Query Language (CQL) looks like SQL, there are some key differences. Become aware of these differences so you can build a scalable data model.
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You’re using Cassandra because you want your data access to be fast and scalable. The secret to Cassandra’s fast data access is an optimized storage mechanism, which you control with the Primary Key. The primary key, and its components, tells Cassandra how to find your data quickly.
Next Concept: Primary Key
A Cassandra primary key uniquely identifies a row within a Cassandra table. This primary key consists of two parts: a partition key and optional clustering columns. Each of these two parts serve different and specific purposes.
Next Concept: Partition Key
The partition key portion of the primary key consists of one or more columns. Cassandra concatenates all values from the partition key columns and uses the result to locate quickly a partition within the cluster.
Next Concept: Partition
A partition is a set of rows (a relatively small subset of the table) that shares the same partition key. The partition is a physical unit of access, which means Cassandra will fetch all rows in a partition at the same time — very quickly. You can think of partitions as the results of pre-computed queries.
Next Concept: Clustering Columns
Within a partition, Cassandra sorts the rows using the values of the clustering columns. Therefore, during a query, Cassandra can use the clustering column values to search the partition quickly for a specific row within the partition.
Next: Skill Building
Want to get some hands-on experience? Give our interactive tutorials a try! You can do it all from your browser, it only takes a few minutes and you don't have to download anything.
Learn how to create basic Cassandra data models
So, you want to create a Cassandra schema? Cassandra's schema development methodology is different from the relational world's approach.
In this scenario, we'll learn how to create a Cassandra schema that deals with:
If you are coming from a relational world, you create a schema by thinking about your data, creating a normalized model and then figuring out how to use the model in your app. Cassandra reverses this process by having you focus on queries within the app and using those queries to drive table design. We'll show you how!
A five step process you can follow to make sure you’re designing great data models
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When you’ve mastered the basics, check out our series on more advanced data modeling for microservice architectures.
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