Cassandra is changing the position of timestamp column - cassandra

I'm new in Cassandra and when I was copying a CSV in Cassandra I found a problem with the position of my timestamp column.
I'm using cqlsh 5.0.1 | Cassandra 2.1.2 | CQL spec 3.2.0 | Native protocol v3
CREATE TABLE events (
id int,
type int,
eventdate timestamp,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
);
select * from events;
id | eventdata | type
----+-----------+------
Why is Cassandra changing the position of the timestamp column?
Thanks.

When you SELECT * the columns come back ordered with keys first, and then the remaining fields in alpha-numeric (might be ascii-betical or ascii-numeric...not exactly sure) order. If you want your columns returned in a specific order, you'll need to specify them (in that order) in your SELECT like this:
SELECT id, type, eventdate FROM events;

Related

Cassandra : Data Modelling

I currently have a table in cassandra called macrecord which looks something like this :
macadd | position | record | timestamp
-------------------+----------+--------+---------------------
23:FD:52:34:DS:32 | 1 | 1 | 2015-09-28 15:28:59
However i now need to make queries which will use the timestamp column to query for a range. I don't think it is possible to do so without timestamp being part of the primary key (macadd in this case) i-e without it being a clustering key.
If i make timestamp as part of the primary key the table looks like below :
macadd | timestamp | position | record
-------------------+---------------------+----------+--------
23:FD:52:34:DS:32 | 2015-09-28 15:33:26 | 1 | 1
However now i cannot update the timestamp column whenever i get a duplicate macadd.
update macrecord set timestamp = dateof(now()) where macadd = '23:FD:52:34:DS:32';
gives an error :
message="PRIMARY KEY part timestamp found in SET part"
I cannot think of an other solution in this case other than to delete the whole row if there is a duplicate value of macadd and then to insert a new row with an updated timestamp.
Is there a better solution to update the timestamp whenever there is a duplicate value of macadd or an alternative way to query for timestamp values in a range in my original table where only macadd is the primary key.
To do a range query in CQL, you'll need to have timestamp as a clustering key. But as you have seen, you can't update key fields without doing a delete and insert of the new key.
One option that will become available in Cassandra 3.0 when it is released in October is materialized views. That would allow you to have timestamp as a value column in the base table and as a clustering column in the view. See an example here.

Order latest records by timestamp in Cassandra

I'm trying to display the latest values from a list of sensors. The list should also be sortable by the time-stamp.
I tried two different approaches. I included the update time of the sensor in the primary key:
CREATE TABLE sensors (
customerid int,
sensorid int,
changedate timestamp,
value text,
PRIMARY KEY (customerid, changedate)
) WITH CLUSTERING ORDER BY (changedate DESC);
Then I can select the list like this:
select * from sensors where customerid=0 order by changedate desc;
which results in this:
customerid | changedate | sensorid | value
------------+--------------------------+----------+-------
0 | 2015-07-10 12:46:53+0000 | 1 | 2
0 | 2015-07-10 12:46:52+0000 | 1 | 1
0 | 2015-07-10 12:46:52+0000 | 0 | 2
0 | 2015-07-10 12:46:26+0000 | 0 | 1
The problem is, I don't get only the latest results, but all the old values too.
If I remove the changedate from the primary key, the select fails all together.
InvalidRequest: code=2200 [Invalid query] message="Order by is currently only supported on the clustered columns of the PRIMARY KEY, got changedate"
Updating the sensor values is also no option:
update overview set changedate=unixTimestampOf(now()), value = '5' where customerid=0 and sensorid=0;
InvalidRequest: code=2200 [Invalid query] message="PRIMARY KEY part changedate found in SET part"
This fails because changedate is part of the primary key.
Is there any possible way to store only the latest values from each sensor and also keep the table ordered by the time-stamp?
Edit:
In the meantime I tried another approach, to only storing the latest value.
I used this schema:
CREATE TABLE sensors (
customerid int,
sensorid int,
changedate timestamp,
value text,
PRIMARY KEY (customerid, sensorid, changedate)
) WITH CLUSTERING ORDER BY (changedate DESC);
Before inserting the latest value, I would delete all old values
DELETE FROM sensors WHERE customerid=? and sensorid=?;
But this fails because changedate is NOT part of the WHERE clause.
The problem is, I don't get only the latest results, but all the old values too.
Since you are storing in a CLUSTERING ORDER of DESC, it will always be very easy to get the latest records, all you need to do is add 'LIMIT' to your query, i.e.:
select * from sensors where customerid=0 order by changedate desc limit 10;
Would return you at most 10 records with the highest changedate. Even though you are using limit, you are still guaranteed to get the latest records since your data is ordered that way.
If I remove the changedate from the primary key, the select fails all together.
This is because you cannot order on a column that is not the clustering key(s) (the secondary part of the primary key) except maybe with a secondary index, which I would not recommend.
Updating the sensor values is also no option
Your update query is failing because it is not legal to include part of the primary key in 'set'. To make this work all you need to do is update your query to include changedate in the where clause, i.e.:
update overview set value = '5' and sensorid = 0 where customerid=0 and changedate=unixTimestampOf(now())
Is there any possible way to store only the latest values from each sensor and also keep the table ordered by the time-stamp?
You can do this by creating a separate table named 'latest_sensor_data' with the same table definition with exception to the primary key. The primary key will now be 'customerid, sensorid' so you can only have 1 record per sensor. The process of creating separate tables is called denormalization and is a common use pattern particularly in Cassandra data modeling. When you insert sensor data you would now insert data into both 'sensors' and 'latest_sensor_data'.
CREATE TABLE latest_sensor_data (
customerid int,
sensorid int,
changedate timestamp,
value text,
PRIMARY KEY (customerid, sensorid)
);
In cassandra 3.0 'materialized views' will be introduced which will make this unnecessary as you can use materialized views to accomplish this for you.
Now doing the following query:
select * from latest_sensor_data where customerid=0
Will give you the latest value for every sensor for that customer.
I would recommend renaming 'sensors' to 'sensor_data' or 'sensor_history' to make it more clear what the data is. Additionally you should change the primary key to 'customerid, changedate, sensorid' as that would allow you to have multiple sensors at the same date (which seems possible).
Your first approach looks reasonable. If you add "limit 1" to your query, you would only get the latest result, or limit 2 to see the latest 2 results, etc.
If you want to automatically remove old values from the table, you can specify a TTL (Time To Live) for data points when you do the insert. So if you wanted to keep data points for 10 days, you could do this by adding "USING TTL 864000" on your insert statements. Or you could set a default TTL for the entire table.

How to delete a record in Cassandra?

I have a table like this:
CREATE TABLE mytable (
user_id int,
device_id ascii,
record_time timestamp,
timestamp timeuuid,
info_1 text,
info_2 int,
PRIMARY KEY (user_id, device_id, record_time, timestamp)
);
When I ask Cassandra to delete a record (an entry in the columnfamily) like this:
DELETE from my_table where user_id = X and device_id = Y and record_time = Z and timestamp = XX;
it returns without an error, but when I query again the record is still there. Now if I try to delete a whole row like this:
DELETE from my_table where user_id = X
It works and removes the whole row, and querying again immediately doesn't return any more data from that row.
What I am doing wrong? How you can remove a record in Cassandra?
Thanks
Ok, here is my theory as to what is going on. You have to be careful with timestamps, because they will store data down to the millisecond. But, they will only display data to the second. Take this sample table for example:
aploetz#cqlsh:stackoverflow> SELECT id, datetime FROM data;
id | datetime
--------+--------------------------
B25881 | 2015-02-16 12:00:03-0600
B26354 | 2015-02-16 12:00:03-0600
(2 rows)
The datetimes (of type timestamp) are equal, right? Nope:
aploetz#cqlsh:stackoverflow> SELECT id, blobAsBigint(timestampAsBlob(datetime)),
datetime FROM data;
id | blobAsBigint(timestampAsBlob(datetime)) | datetime
--------+-----------------------------------------+--------------------------
B25881 | 1424109603000 | 2015-02-16 12:00:03-0600
B26354 | 1424109603234 | 2015-02-16 12:00:03-0600
(2 rows)
As you are finding out, this becomes problematic when you use timestamps as part of your PRIMARY KEY. It is possible that your timestamp is storing more precision than it is showing you. And thus, you will need to provide that hidden precision if you will be successful in deleting that single row.
Anyway, you have a couple of options here. One, find a way to ensure that you are not entering more precision than necessary into your record_time. Or, you could define record_time as a timeuuid.
Again, it's a theory. I could be totally wrong, but I have seen people do this a few times. Usually it happens when they insert timestamp data using dateof(now()) like this:
INSERT INTO table (key, time, data) VALUES (1,dateof(now()),'blah blah');
CREATE TABLE worker_login_table (
worker_id text,
logged_in_time timestamp,
PRIMARY KEY (worker_id, logged_in_time)
);
INSERT INTO worker_login_table (worker_id, logged_in_time)
VALUES ("worker_1",toTimestamp(now()));
after 1 hour executed the above insert statement once again
select * from worker_login_table;
worker_id| logged_in_time
----------+--------------------------
worker_1 | 2019-10-23 12:00:03+0000
worker_1 | 2015-10-23 13:00:03+0000
(2 rows)
Query the table to get absolute timestamp
select worker_id, blobAsBigint(timestampAsBlob(logged_in_time )), logged_in_time from worker_login_table;
worker_id | blobAsBigint(timestampAsBlob(logged_in_time)) | logged_in_time
--------+-----------------------------------------+--------------------------
worker_1 | 1524109603000 | 2019-10-23 12:00:03+0000
worker_1 | 1524209403234 | 2019-10-23 13:00:03+0000
(2 rows)
The below command will not delete the entry from Cassandra as the precise value of timestamp is required to delete the entry
DELETE from worker_login_table where worker_id='worker_1' and logged_in_time ='2019-10-23 12:00:03+0000';
By using the timestamp from blob we can delete the entry from Cassandra
DELETE from worker_login_table where worker_id='worker_1' and logged_in_time ='1524209403234';

Can an index be created on a UUID Column?

Is it possible to create an index on a UUID/TIMEUUID column in Cassandra? I'm testing out a model design which would have an index on a UUID column, but queries on that column always return 0 rows found.
I have a table like this:
create table some_data (site_id int, user_id int, run_id uuid, value int, primary key((site_id, user_id), run_id));
I create an index with this command:
create index idx on some_data (run_id) ;
No errors are thrown by CQL when I create this index.
I have a small bit of test data in the table:
site_id | user_id | run_id | value
---------+---------+--------------------------------------+-----------------
1 | 1 | 9e118af0-ac92-11e4-81ae-8d1bc921f26d | 3
However, when I run the query:
select * from some_data where run_id = 9e118af0-ac92-11e4-81ae-8d1bc921f26d
CQLSH just returns: (0 rows)
If I use an int for the run_id then the index behaves as expected.
Yes, you can create a secondary index on a UUID. The real question is "should you?"
In any case, I followed your steps, and got it to work.
Connected to Test Cluster at 192.168.23.129:9042.
[cqlsh 5.0.1 | Cassandra 2.1.2 | CQL spec 3.2.0 | Native protocol v3]
Use HELP for help.
aploetz#cqlsh> use stackoverflow ;
aploetz#cqlsh:stackoverflow> create table some_data (site_id int, user_id int, run_id uuid, value int, primary key((site_id, user_id), run_id));
aploetz#cqlsh:stackoverflow> create index idx on some_data (run_id) ;
aploetz#cqlsh:stackoverflow> INSERT INTO some_data (site_id, user_id, run_id, value) VALUES (1,1,9e118af0-ac92-11e4-81ae-8d1bc921f26d,3);
aploetz#cqlsh:stackoverflow> select * from usr_rec3 where run_id = 9e118af0-ac92-11e4-81ae-8d1bc921f26d;
code=2200 [Invalid query] message="unconfigured columnfamily usr_rec3"
aploetz#cqlsh:stackoverflow> select * from some_data where run_id = 9e118af0-ac92-11e4-81ae-8d1bc921f26d;
site_id | user_id | run_id | value
---------+---------+--------------------------------------+-------
1 | 1 | 9e118af0-ac92-11e4-81ae-8d1bc921f26d | 3
(1 rows)
Notice though, that when I ran this command, it failed:
select * from usr_rec3 where run_id = 9e118af0-ac92-11e4-81ae-8d1bc921f26d
Are you sure that you didn't mean to select from some_data instead?
Also, creating secondary indexes on high-cardinality columns (like a UUID) is generally not a good idea. If you need to query by run_id, then you should revisit your data model and come up with an appropriate query table to serve that.
Clarification:
Using secondary indexes in general is not considered good practice. In the new book Cassandra High Availability, Robbie Strickland identifies their use as an anti-pattern, due to poor performance.
Just because a column is of the UUID data type doesn't necessarily make it high-cardinality. That's more of a data model question for you. But knowing the nature of UUIDs and their underlying purpose toward being unique, is setting off red flags.
Put these two points together, and there isn't anything about creating an index on a UUID that sounds appealing to me. If it were my cluster, and (more importantly) I had to support it later, I wouldn't do it.

Cassandra compound clustering key and queries with ordering

We use cassandra wide rows heavily to store per user time-series as they are perfect for that use-case. Let's assume we have a table:
create table user_events (
user_id text,
timestmp timestamp,
event text,
primary key((user_id), timestmp));
What if clashes on timestamp may happen (same user can emit two different events with the same timestamp). What is the best way to tweak this schema to resolve that assuming we have an ordering for all events present (have a sequence int for each event).
If I modify schema the following way:
create table user_events (
user_id text,
timestmp timestamp,
seq int,
event text,
primary key((user_id), timestmp, seq));
I won’t be able to do WHERE user_id = ? ORDER BY timestmp ASC, seq ASC – cassandra does not allow that.
I won’t be able to do WHERE user_id = ? ORDER BY timestmp ASC, seq ASC – cassandra does not allow that.
You might be seeing an error because you are repeating ASC. This should work:
WHERE user_id = ? ORDER BY timestmp,seq ASC
Also, as long as you have defined your primary key as PRIMARY KEY((user_id),timestmp,seq)) you don't even need to specify ORDER BY x[,y] ASC. It will cluster the data on disk in that order, and thus return it to you already sorted in that order. ORDER BY should only be necessary when you want to put your results in descending order (or whatever the opposite of how you have it defined is).
What if clashes on timestamp may happen?
I think your extra seq column should be sufficient, depending on how you plan on inserting the data. If you are setting the timestmp from the client, then you should be ok. However, look what happens when I (using your second table) INSERT rows while creating the timestamp two different ways.
INSERT INTO user_events(user_id,timestmp,seq,event) VALUES ('Mal',dateof(now()),1,'commanding');
INSERT INTO user_events(user_id,timestmp,seq,event) VALUES ('Wash',dateof(now()),1,'piloting');
INSERT INTO user_events(user_id,timestmp,seq,event) VALUES ('River',dateof(now()),1,'freaking out');
INSERT INTO user_events(user_id,timestmp,seq,event) VALUES ('River',dateof(now()),3,'being weird');
INSERT INTO user_events(user_id,timestmp,seq,event) VALUES ('River',dateof(now()),2,'killing reavers');
INSERT INTO user_events(user_id,timestmp,seq,event) VALUES ('River','2015-01-13 13:14-0600',1,'freaking out');
INSERT INTO user_events(user_id,timestmp,seq,event) VALUES ('River','2015-01-13 13:14-0600',3,'being weird');
INSERT INTO user_events(user_id,timestmp,seq,event) VALUES ('River','2015-01-13 13:14-0600',2,'killing reavers');
Querying that data by a user_id of "River" yields:
aploetz#cqlsh:stackoverflow> SELECT * FROM user_events WHERE user_id='River';
user_id | timestmp | seq | event
---------+--------------------------+-----+-----------------
River | 2015-01-13 13:14:00-0600 | 1 | freaking out
River | 2015-01-13 13:14:00-0600 | 2 | killing reavers
River | 2015-01-13 13:14:00-0600 | 3 | being weird
River | 2015-01-14 12:58:41-0600 | 1 | freaking out
River | 2015-01-14 12:58:57-0600 | 3 | being weird
River | 2015-01-14 12:58:57-0600 | 2 | killing reavers
(6 rows)
Notice that using the now() function to generate a timeuuid, and then converting that to a timestamp with dateof() causes the two rows with the timestmp "2015-01-14 12:58:57-0600" to appear to be the same. But they are not the same, as you can tell by the seq column.
So just a bit of caution on using/generating timestamps. They might look the same, but they may not be stored as the same value. Just to be on the safe side, I would use a timeuuid instead.

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