NOTE:  CQL V2 reference is available here http://crlog.info/2011/09/17/cassandra-query-language-cql-v2-0-reference/

A more recent version of the CQL Specification V1.0.0 is available here http://crlog.info/2011/06/13/cassandra-query-language-cql-v1-0-0-updated/

A very nice break down of the up and coming CQL syntax was posted on the Cassandra dev list yesterday. It breaks down the current state of the query language in easy to understand steps. I've copied it purely for the sake of duplication and getting it out there as much as possible. While CQL is still very immature it is gaining momentum and is likely to become the de-facto interface to Cassandra.<!-- more -->

The document's contents are directly copied and pasted over from https://svn.apache.org/viewvc/cassandra/trunk/doc/cql/CQL.html?view=co :

Cassandra Query Language (CQL) v1.0.0

Table of Contents

1. Cassandra Query Language (CQL) v1.0.0

   1. Table of Contents
   2. USE
   3. SELECT
      1. Specifying Columns
      2. Column Family
      3. Consistency Level
      4. Filtering rows
      5. Limits
   4. UPDATE
      1. Column Family
      2. Consistency Level
      3. Specifying Columns and Row
   5. DELETE
      1. Specifying Columns
      2. Column Family
      3. Consistency Level
      4. Specifying Rows
   6. TRUNCATE
   7. CREATE KEYSPACE
   8. CREATE COLUMNFAMILY
      1. Specifying Column Type (optional)
      2. Column Family Options (optional)
   9. CREATE INDEX
   10. DROP
   11. Common Idioms
       1. Specifying Consistency
       2. Term specification

2. Versioning

3. Changes

USE

Synopsis:

<code>USE <KEYSPACE>; </code>

A USE statement consists of the USE keyword, followed by a valid keyspace name. Its purpose is to assign the per-connection, current working keyspace. All subsequent keyspace-specific actions will be performed in the context of the supplied value.

SELECT

Synopsis:

<code>SELECT [FIRST N] [REVERSED] <SELECT EXPR> FROM <COLUMN FAMILY> [USING <CONSISTENCY>] [WHERE <CLAUSE>] [LIMIT N]; </code>

A SELECT is used to read one or more records from a Cassandra column family. It returns a result-set of rows, where each row consists of a key and a collection of columns corresponding to the query.

Specifying Columns

<code>SELECT [FIRST N] [REVERSED] name1, name2, name3 FROM ... SELECT [FIRST N] [REVERSED] name1..nameN FROM ... </code>

The SELECT expression determines which columns will appear in the results and takes the form of either a comma separated list of names, or a range. The range notation consists of a start and end column name separated by two periods (..). The set of columns returned for a range is start and end inclusive.

The FIRST option accepts an integer argument and can be used to apply a limit to the number of columns returned per row. When this limit is left unset it defaults to 10,000 columns.

The REVERSED option causes the sort order of the results to be reversed.

It is worth noting that unlike the projection in a SQL SELECT, there is no guarantee that the results will contain all of the columns specified. This is because Cassandra is schema-less and there are no guarantees that a given column exists.

Column Family

<code>SELECT ... FROM <COLUMN FAMILY> ... </code>

The FROM clause is used to specify the Cassandra column family applicable to a SELECT query.

Consistency Level

<code>SELECT ... [USING <CONSISTENCY>] ... </code>

Following the column family clause is an optional consistency level specification.

Filtering rows

<code>SELECT ... WHERE KEY = keyname AND name1 = value1 SELECT ... WHERE KEY >= startkey and KEY =< endkey AND name1 = value1 </code>

The WHERE clause provides for filtering the rows that appear in results. The clause can filter on a key name, or range of keys, and in the case of indexed columns, on column values. Key filters are specified using the KEYkeyword, a relational operator, (one of =, >, >=, <, and <=), and a term value. When terms appear on both sides of a relational operator it is assumed the filter applies to an indexed column. With column index filters, the term on the left of the operator is the name, the term on the right is the value to filter on.

Note: The greater-than and less-than operators (> and <) result in key ranges that are inclusive of the terms. There is no supported notion of "strictly" greater-than or less-than; these operators are merely supported as aliases to >= and <=.

Limits

<code>SELECT ... WHERE <CLAUSE> [LIMIT N] ... </code>

Limiting the number of rows returned can be achieved by adding the LIMIT option to a SELECT expression. LIMIT defaults to 10,000 when left unset.

UPDATE

Synopsis:

<code>UPDATE [USING CONSISTENCY ] SET name1 = value1, name2 = value2 WHERE KEY = keyname; </code>

An UPDATE is used to write one or more columns to a record in a Cassandra column family. No results are returned.

Column Family

<code>UPDATE <COLUMN FAMILY> ... </code>

Statements begin with the UPDATE keyword followed by a Cassandra column family name.

Consistency Level

<code>UPDATE ... [USING <CONSISTENCY>] ... </code>

Following the column family identifier is an optional consistency level specification.

Specifying Columns and Row

<code>UPDATE ... SET name1 = value1, name2 = value2 WHERE KEY = keyname; </code>

Rows are created or updated by supplying column names and values in term assignment format. Multiple columns can be set by separating the name/value pairs using commas. Each update statement requires exactly one key to be specified using a WHERE clause and the KEY keyword.

Additionally, it is also possible to send multiple UPDATES to a node at once using a batch syntax:

<code>BEGIN BATCH [USING ] UPDATE CF1 SET name1 = value1, name2 = value2 WHERE KEY = keyname1; UPDATE CF1 SET name3 = value3 WHERE KEY = keyname2; UPDATE CF2 SET name4 = value4, name5 = value5 WHERE KEY = keyname3; APPLY BATCH </code>

When batching UPDATEs, a single consistency level is used for the entire batch, it appears after the BEGIN BATCH statement, and uses the standard consistency level specification. Batch UPDATEs default toCONSISTENCY.ONE when left unspecified.

NOTE: While there are no isolation guarantees, UPDATE queries are atomic within a give record.

DELETE

Synopsis:

<code>DELETE [COLUMNS] FROM [USING ] WHERE KEY = keyname1 DELETE [COLUMNS] FROM [USING ] WHERE KEY IN (keyname1, keyname2); </code>

A DELETE is used to perform the removal of one or more columns from one or more rows.

Specifying Columns

<code>DELETE [COLUMNS] ... </code>

Following the DELETE keyword is an optional comma-delimited list of column name terms. When no column names are specified, the remove applies to the entire row(s) matched by the WHERE clause

Column Family

<code>DELETE ... FROM <COLUMN FAMILY> ... </code>

The column family name follows the list of column names.

Consistency Level

<code>UPDATE ... [USING <CONSISTENCY>] ... </code>

Following the column family identifier is an optional consistency level specification.

Specifying Rows

<code>UPDATE ... WHERE KEY = keyname1 UPDATE ... WHERE KEY IN (keyname1, keyname2) </code>

The WHERE clause is used to determine which row(s) a DELETE applies to. The first form allows the specification of a single keyname using the KEY keyword and the = operator. The second form allows a list of keyname terms to be specified using the IN notation and a parenthesized list of comma-delimited keyname terms.

TRUNCATE

Synopsis:

<code>TRUNCATE <COLUMN FAMILY> </code>

Accepts a single argument for the column family name, and permanently removes all data from said column family.

CREATE KEYSPACE

Synopsis:

<code>CREATE KEYSPACE WITH replication_factor = AND strategy_class = [AND strategy_options. = [AND strategy_options. = ]]; </code>

The CREATE KEYSPACE statement creates a new top-level namespace (aka "keyspace"). Valid names are any string constructed of alphanumeric characters and underscores, but must begin with a letter. Properties such as replication strategy and count are specified during creation using the following accepted keyword arguments:

CREATE COLUMNFAMILY

Synopsis:

<code>CREATE COLUMNFAMILY [(name1 type, name2 type, ...)] [WITH keyword1 = arg1 [AND keyword2 = arg2 [AND ...]]]; </code>

CREATE COLUMNFAMILY statements create new column family namespaces under the current keyspace. Valid column family names are strings of alphanumeric characters and underscores, which begin with a letter.

Specifying Column Type (optional)

<code>CREATE COLUMNFAMILY (name1 type, name2 type) ...; </code>

It is possible to assign columns a type during column family creation. Columns configured with a type are validated accordingly when a write occurs. Column types are specified as a parenthesized, comma-separated list of column term and type pairs. The list of recognized types are:

Column Family Options (optional)

<code>CREATE COLUMNFAMILY ... WITH keyword1 = arg1 AND keyword2 = arg2; </code>

A number of optional keyword arguments can be supplied to control the configuration of a new column family.

CREATE INDEX

Synopsis:

<code>CREATE INDEX [index_name] ON <column_family> (column_name); </code>

A CREATE INDEX statement is used to create a new, automatic secondary index for the named column.

DROP

Synopsis:

<code>DROP <KEYSPACE|COLUMNFAMILY> namespace; </code>

DROP statements result in the immediate, irreversible removal of keyspace and column family namespaces.

Common Idioms

Specifying Consistency

<code>... USING <CONSISTENCY> ... </code>

Consistency level specifications are made up the keyword USING, followed by a consistency level identifier. Valid consistency levels are as follows:

• CONSISTENCY ZERO

• CONSISTENCY ONE (default)

• CONSISTENCY QUORUM

• CONSISTENCY ALL

• CONSISTENCY DCQUORUM

• CONSISTENCY DCQUORUMSYNC

Term specification

Terms are used in statements to specify things such as keyspaces, column families, indexes, column names and values, and keyword arguments. The rules governing term specification are as follows:

• Any single quoted string literal (example: 'apple').

• Unquoted alpha-numeric strings that begin with a letter (example: carrot).

• Unquoted numeric literals (example: 100).

• UUID strings in hyphen-delimited hex notation (example: 1438fc5c-4ff6-11e0-b97f-0026c650d722).

Terms which do not conform to these rules result in an exception.

How column name/value terms are interpreted is determined by the configured type.

Versioning

Versioning of the CQL language adheres to the Semantic Versioning guidelines. Versions take the form X.Y.Z where X, Y, and Z are integer values representing major, minor, and patch level respectively. There is no correlation between Cassandra release versions and the CQL language version.

Changes

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 18:10:28 -0700 - Eric Evans <eevans@rackspace.com>
 * Initial version, 1.0.0