Apache Cassandra Table

Introduction

Apache Cassandra stores data in tables. Tables for an application are grouped and organized in a keyspace. Each table consists of rows and columns. Apache Cassandra tables are distributed around the cluster in blocks or partitions. A partition contains one or more rows. Columns have data types specified in the table definition. The column data types dictate how the data is sorted and stored on disk, impacting the speed at which it is read.

In Apache Cassandra, data models are built to query the data. So, tables are built and stored with the aim of minimizing query response times. To understand how a table’s definition impacts the storage engine, let's look at a simple example.