Inserting and querying

The API for Cassandra is CQL, the Cassandra Query Language. To use CQL, you will need to connect to the cluster, using either:

  • cqlsh, a shell for CQL

  • a client driver for Cassandra

  • for the adventurous, check out Apache Zeppelin, a notebook-style tool

CQLSH

cqlsh is a command-line shell for interacting with Cassandra using CQL. It is shipped with every Cassandra package, and can be found in the bin directory alongside the cassandra executable. It connects to the single node specified on the command line. For example:

  1. $ bin/cqlsh localhost
  1. Connected to Test Cluster at localhost:9042.
  2. [cqlsh 5.0.1 | Cassandra 3.8 | CQL spec 3.4.2 | Native protocol v4]
  3. Use HELP for help.
  4. cqlsh> SELECT cluster_name, listen_address FROM system.local;
  6.  cluster_name | listen_address
  7. --------------+----------------
  8.  Test Cluster |      127.0.0.1
  10. (1 rows)
  11. cqlsh>

If the command is used without specifying a node, localhost is the default. See the cqlsh section for full documentation.

Client drivers

A lot of client drivers are provided by the Community and a list of known drivers is provided. You should refer to the documentation of each driver for more information.