Working with Apache Cassandra: Partitioning & Clustering Keys

Primary keys play a special role in Apache Cassandra. Not only are they used to uniquely identify a row in a table they are also used to decide where and how data is stored in the underlying cluster. Begin by creating tables with different combinations of partitioning and clustering key columns querying the tables and confirming the keys were taking effect. Then explore the exact semantics of queries on partition and clustering key columns. Finally learn how to use the nodetool and grep utilities to view properties of partitions and to verify how rows are mapped to partitions on the basis of token ranges assigned to each partition. Upon completion you will be able to contrast primary keys in Cassandra with those in other data technologies differentiate between clustering and partition keys and identify types of queries that are and are not allowed in Cassandra.