Cassandra Data Types Cheatsheet

Cassandra has its own query language called CQL (Cassandra Query Language). CQL is similar to SQL in the sense that it stores data in tables containing columns and rows of records.

In this post, we are going to learn more about three different groups of data types in Cassandra: Built-in, Collection, and User-defined data types. .

1. Built-in Data Types

Below is the list of built-in data types that are supported in CQL.

Data Type	Constants	Description
ascii	string	ASCII character string
bigint	integer	64-bit signed long
blob	blob	Arbitrary bytes (no validation) expressed as hexadecimal
boolean	boolean	true or false
counter	integer	Counter column (64-bit signed value)
date	integer, string	A date (with no corresponding time value)
decimal	integer, float	Variable-precision decimal
double	integer float	64-bit IEEE-754 floating point
duration	duration,	A duration with nanosecond precision
float	integer, float	32-bit IEEE-754 floating point
inet	string	An IP address string format, either IPv4 (4 bytes long) or IPv6 (16 bytes long).
int	integer	32-bit signed integer
smallint	integer	16-bit signed integer
text	string	UTF-8 encoded string
time	integer, string	A time (with no corresponding date value) with nanosecond precision, encoded as a 64-bit signed integer
timestamp	integer, string	A timestamp (date and time) with millisecond precision, encoded as 8 bytes since epoch
timeuuid	uuid	Version 1 UUID, generally used as a “conflict-free” timestamp
tinyint	integer	1 byte integer
uuid	uuid	A UUID in standard UUID format(of any version)
varchar	string	UTF8 encoded string
varint	integer	Arbitrary-precision integer

2. Collection Data Types

CQL also supports some collection data types

Collection	Description
list	A collection of one or more ordered elements.
map	A collection of key-value pairs.
set	A collection of one or more elements.

Note that these collection data types don’t have constants.

3. User-Defined Data Types

You can create, alter and delete your own data types in Cassandra using these commands:

Command	Description
CREATE TYPE	Create a user-defined datatype.
ALTER TYPE	Modify a user-defined datatype.
DROP TYPE	Drop a user-defined datatype.
DESCRIBE TYPE	Describe a user-defined datatype.
DESCRIBE TYPES	Describe multiple user-defined datatypes.

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