BIG DATA ANALYTICS LAB

(A7902) (VCE-R21)

Week-5 Cassandra

a) Implement keyspace operations to group column families

together for the given application data.
b) Implement CRUD operations on the given dataset using
Cassandra.
5.a) Implement keyspace operations
A keyspace is a container to hold application data. It is comparable to a relational
database. It is used to group column families together. Typically, a cluster has one
keyspace per application. Replication is controlled on a per keyspace
When one creates a keyspace, it is required to specify a strategy class. There are two
choices available with us. Either we can specify a “SimpleStrategy” or a
“NetworkTopologyStrategy” class. While using Cassandra for evaluation purpose, go with
“SimpleStrategy” class and for production usage, work with the
“NetworkTopologyStrategy” class.
5.1. Create keyspace: To create a new keyspace.

Syntax: CREATE KEYSPACE <keyspace_name> WITH <properties>

i. Create a keyspace by the name “Students”

Command:
cqlsh> CREATE KEYSPACE Students WITH REPLICATION = {
'class' : 'SimpleStrategy',
'replication_factor' : 1 };

ii. To describe all the existing keyspaces.

Command: cqlsh> DESCRIBE keyspaces;

Output: system students system_traces

5.2. Use: connects the client session to the specified keyspace.

Syntax: USE keyspace_name;

Command: cqlsh> USE Students;

Output: cqlsh:students>

Note: Cassandra converted the Students keyspace to lowercase as quotation marks were
not used.

A. Bhanu Prasad, Associate Professor of CSE, VCE

BIG DATA ANALYTICS LAB
(A7902) (VCE-R21)

5.3. To create a column family or table by the name “student_info”.

cqlsh:students> CREATE TABLE Student_Info (
RollNo int PRIMARY KEY,
StudName text,
DateofJoining timestamp,
LastExamPercent double );

The table “student_info” gets created in the keyspace “students”.

Note: Tables can have either a single or compound primary key.
5.4. To lookup the names of all tables in the current keyspace, or in all the keyspaces
if there is no current keyspace.
cqlsh:students> DESCRIBE TABLES;
Output: student_Info

5.5. To describe the table “student_info” use the below command.

cqlsh:students> DESCRIBE TABLE student_info;
Output:

Note: The output is a list of CQL commands with the help of which the table “student_info”
can be recreated.

A. Bhanu Prasad, Associate Professor of CSE, VCE

BIG DATA ANALYTICS LAB
(A7902) (VCE-R21)

5.b) CRUD (CREATE, READ, UPDATE, AND DELETE) OPERATIONS

1. CREATE: To creating a column family or table in a keyspace
Syntax: CREATE TABLE tablename (
column1_ name datatype PRIMARY KEY,
column2_ name data type,
column3_ name data type …
) ;

To create a column family or table by the name “student_info”.

cqlsh:students> CREATE TABLE Student_Info (
RollNo int PRIMARY KEY,
StudName text,
DateofJoining timestamp,
LastExamPercent double );

The table “student_info” gets created in the keyspace “students”.

Note: Tables can have either a single or compound primary key.

2. INSERT: To insert data into the column family “student_info”. An insert writes one or
more columns to a record in Cassandra table atomically. An insert statement does not
return an output.
cqlsh:students> BEGIN BATCH
INSERT INTO student_info (RollNo,StudName,DateofJoining,LastExamPercent)
VALUES (1,'Michael Storm','2012-03-29', 69.6)
INSERT INTO student_info (RollNo,StudName,DateofJoining,LastExamPercent)
VALUES (2,'Stephen Fox','2013-02-27', 72.5)
INSERT INTO student_info (RollNo,StudName,DateofJoining,LastExamPercent)
VALUES (3,'David Flemming','2014-04-12', 81.7)
INSERT INTO student_info (RollNo,StudName,DateofJoining,LastExamPercent)
VALUES (4,'Ian String','2012-05-11', 73.4)
APPLY BATCH;

3. READ: To retrieve or fetch the data from a table.

Syntax: SELECT <column1_name>,<column2_name> ..
FROM table_name
WHERE <condition>;

A. Bhanu Prasad, Associate Professor of CSE, VCE

BIG DATA ANALYTICS LAB
(A7902) (VCE-R21)

3.1. To view the data from the table “student_info”.

cqlsh:students> SELECT * FROM student_info;

The above select statement retrieves data from the “student_info” table.

3.2. To view or display information of only those students records where the RollNo
column either has a value 1 or 2 or 3.
cqlsh:students> SELECT * FROM student_info WHERE RollNo IN (1,2,3);

3.3. To execute the query using the index defined on “studname” column.
cqlsh:students> CREATE INDEX ON student_info(studname)
cqlsh:students> SELECT * FROM student_info WHERE studname= 'Stephen Fox';

4.UPDATE: An update updates one or more column values for a given row to the Cassandra
table. It does not return anything.
4.1. To updatethe value held in the “StudName” column of the “student_info” column family
to “David Sheen” for the record where the RollNo column has value = 2.
cqlsh:students> UPDATE student_info SET StudName = 'David Sheen'
WHERE RollNo = 2;
cqlsh:students> SELECT * FROM student_info WHERE RollNo = 2;

A. Bhanu Prasad, Associate Professor of CSE, VCE

BIG DATA ANALYTICS LAB
(A7902) (VCE-R21)

4.2. Let us try updating the value of a primary key column.

cqlsh:students> UPDATE student_info SET rollno=6 WHERE rollno=3;

Note: It does not allow update to a primary key column.

4.3. Updating more than one column of a row of Cassandra table.

5. DELETE: Delete statement removes one or more columns from one or more rows of a
Cassandra table or removes entire rows if no columns are specified.

5.1. To delete the column “LastExamPercent” from the “student_info” table for the record
where the RollNo = 2.
cqlsh:students> DELETE LastExamPercent FROM student_info WHERE RollNo= 2;
cqlsh:students> SELECT * FROM student_info WHERE RollNo = 2;

5.2. To delete a row (where RollNo = 2) from the table “student_info”.

cqlsh:students> DELETE FROM student_info WHERE RollNo= 2;

A. Bhanu Prasad, Associate Professor of CSE, VCE

BIG DATA ANALYTICS LAB
(A7902) (VCE-R21)

Week-6 Cassandra

a) Design a table/column family and perform various

collection types Set, List and Map using Cassandra.
b) Design a table/column family and perform Alter table
commands using Cassandra.
COLLECTIONS: Cassandra provides collection types as a way to group and store data
together in a column i.e; to store multiple values in a column like storing multiple mobile
number etc. They are used when to store or denormalize a small amount of data.
6.a) CQL makes use of the following collection types: SET, LIST, MAP
6.1. SET: A column of type set consists of unordered unique values. When the column is
queried, it returns the values in sorted order.
Ex.: for text values, it sorts in alphabetical order.

Problem statement: Create a table “users” with columns “user_id” (as primary key),
“first_name”, “last_name” and “emails” column as set-collection. Insert the given values to
the table: 'AB', 'Albert', 'Baggins', {'[email protected]', '[email protected]'}. Add an element
to the emails set {'[email protected]'}. Retrieve all email addresses. Now, remove an
element from the set and view the record. Then remove all elements from the set and
display the table.

1.1. To create a table “users” with an “emails” column. The type of this column “emails” is
“set” collection.
cqlsh:students> CREATE TABLE users (
user_id text PRIMARY KEY,
first_name text,
last_name text,
emails set<text> );

1.2. To insert values into the “emails” column of the “users” table.
Note: Set values must be unique.
cqlsh:students> INSERT INTO users (user_id, first_name, last_name, emails)
VALUES ('AB', 'Albert', 'Baggins', {'[email protected]', '[email protected]'});

1.3 Add an element to a set using the UPDATE command and the addition (+) operator.
cqlsh:students> UPDATE users SET emails = emails + {'[email protected]'}
WHERE user_id = 'AB';

A. Bhanu Prasad, Associate Professor of CSE, VCE

BIG DATA ANALYTICS LAB
(A7902) (VCE-R21)

1.4. To retrieve email addresses for Albert from the set.

cqlsh:students> SELECT user_id, emails FROM users WHERE user_id = 'AB';

1.5. To remove an element from a set using the subtraction (-) operator.
cqlsh:students> UPDATE users SET emails = emails - {'[email protected]'}
WHERE user_id = 'AB';
cqlsh:students> SELECT * FROM users

1.6. To remove all elements from a set by using the UPDATE or DELETE statement.
cqlsh:students> UPDATE users SET emails = {} WHERE user_id = 'AB';
(OR)
cqlsh:students> DELETE emails FROM users WHERE user_id = 'AB';
cqlsh:students> SELECT * FROM users

A. Bhanu Prasad, Associate Professor of CSE, VCE

BIG DATA ANALYTICS LAB
(A7902) (VCE-R21)

6.2. LIST Collection:

 List is used when the order of elements matter.
 List allows to store the same value multiple times.
Eg. When we want to store preferences of places to visit by a user, we would like to
follow the preferences and retrieve the values in the same order rather than sorted
order.
6.2.1. To alter the “users” table to add a column, “top_places” of type list Collection.
cqlsh:students> ALTER TABLE users ADD top_places list<text>;

6.2.2. Update the list column “top_places” with values ['Lonavla', 'Khandala'] in the “users”
table for user_id = ‘AB’.
cqlsh:students> UPDATE users SET top_places = ['Lonavla', 'Khandala']
WHERE user_id = 'AB';
cqlsh:students> SELECT * FROM users WHERE user_id = 'AB';

6.2.3. Prepend an element 'Mahabaleshwar' to the list by enclosing it in square brackets

and using the addition (+) operator.
cqlsh:students> UPDATE users SET top_places = ['Mahabaleshwar'] + top_places
WHERE user_id = 'AB';
cqlsh:students> SELECT * FROM users;

6.2.4. To append an element to the list by switching the order of the new element data and
the list name in the update command.
cqlsh:students> UPDATE users SET top_places = top_places + ['Tapola']
WHERE user_id = ‘AB’
cqlsh:students> SELECT * FROM users;

A. Bhanu Prasad, Associate Professor of CSE, VCE

BIG DATA ANALYTICS LAB
(A7902) (VCE-R21)

6.2.5. To query the database for a list of top places.

cqlsh:students> SELECT user_id, top_places FROM users WHERE user_id = 'AB';

6.2.6.To remove an element from a list using the DELETE command and the list index
position in square brackets.
cqlsh:students> DELETE top_places[3] FROM users WHERE user_id = 'AB';
cqlsh:students> SELECT * FROM users;

6.3. MAP Collection: As the name implies, a map is used to map one thing to another. A
map is a pair of typed values. It is used to store timestamp related information. Each
element of the map is stored as a Cassandra column. Each element can be individually
queried, modified, and deleted. Objective:

Using Map: Key, Value Pair

6.3.1. To alter the “users” table to add a map column “todo”.
cqlsh:students> ALTER TABLE users ADD todo map<timestamp, text>;
cqlsh:students> DESCRIBE TABLE users

A. Bhanu Prasad, Associate Professor of CSE, VCE

BIG DATA ANALYTICS LAB
(A7902) (VCE-R21)

6.3.2. To update “todo” values for the record for user (user_id = ‘AB’) in the “users” table.
cqlsh:students> UPDATE users SET todo = {‘2024-09-24’ : ‘Cassandra Session’ ,
‘2024-10-02’ : ‘MangoDB Session’ ,}
WHERE user_id = 'AB';
cqlsh:students> SELECT user_id, top_places FROM users WHERE user_id = 'AB';

6.3.3. To delete an element from the map using the DELETE command and enclosing the
timestamp of the element in square brackets.
cqlsh:students> DELETE todo['2024-09-24'] FROM users WHERE user_id = 'AB';
cqlsh:students> SELECT user_id, todo FROM users WHERE user_id = 'AB';

A. Bhanu Prasad, Associate Professor of CSE, VCE

BIG DATA ANALYTICS LAB
(A7902) (VCE-R21)

6.b) ALTER commands: to bring about changes to the structure of the table/column
family.
1. Create a table “sample” with columns “sample_id” and “sample_name”.
cqlsh:students> CREATE TABLE sample(
sample_id text, sample_name text,
PRIMARY KEY (sample_id) );

2. Insert a record into the table “sample”.

cqlsh:students> INSERT INTO sample( sample_id, sample_name)
VALUES ('S101', 'Big Data');

3. View the records of the table “sample”.

cqlsh:students> SELECT * FROM sample;

6b.1. Alter Table to Change the Data Type of a Column

1. Alter the schema of the table “sample”. Change the data type of the column “sample_id” to
integer from text.
cqlsh:students> ALTER TABLE sample ALTER sample_id TYPE int;

2. After the data type of the column “sample_id” is changed from text to integer, try
inserting a record as follows and observe the error message:
cqlsh:students> INSERT INTO sample(sample_id, sample_name)
VALUES( 'S102', 'Big Data');

3. Try inserting a record as given below into the table “sample”.

cqlsh:students> INSERT INTO sample(sample_id, sample_name) VALUES( 102, 'Big Data');

4. Alter the data type of the “sample_id” column to varchar from integer.
cqlsh:students> ALTER TABLE sample ALTER sample_id TYPE varchar;

5. Check the records after the data type of “sample_id” has been changed to varchar from
integer.
cqlsh:students> SELECT * FROM sample;

A. Bhanu Prasad, Associate Professor of CSE, VCE

BIG DATA ANALYTICS LAB
(A7902) (VCE-R21)

6b.2. Alter Table to Delete a Column

1. Drop the column “sample_id” from the table “sample”.
cqlsh:students> ALTER TABLE sample DROP sample_id;

Note: The request to drop the “sample_id” column from the table “sample” does not
succeed as it is the primary key column.

2. Drop the column “sample_name” from the table “sample”.

cqlsh:students> ALTER TABLE sample DROP sample_name;
Note: the above request to drop the column “sample_name” from table “sample” succeeds.

3. Drop a Table: Drop the column family/table “sample”.

cqlsh:students> DROP columnfamily sample;
cqlsh:students> DESCRIBE TABLE sample;

The above request succeeds. The table/column family no longer exists in the keyspace.

5. Drop a Database: Drop the keyspace “students”.

cqlsh:students> DROP keyspace students;
cqlsh:students> DESCRIBE keyspace students;

A. Bhanu Prasad, Associate Professor of CSE, VCE