What is a column family database?

NoSQL Concepts

Miriam Antona

Software engineer

Column family databases - overview

• Derive from Google BigTable
• Store data in column families
  • group related data
  • frequently accessed together
• Also called wide column databases
• Great when dealing with large volumes of data

Column family databases - structure

Column family databases - structure

Column family databases - structure

Column family databases - structure

• A column family is like a table in a relational database

Column family databases - structure

• Row key: unique identifiers
  • Like primary keys in a relational database

Column family databases - structure

• Each row can have different number of columns
  • Columns can be added when needed

Column family databases - structure

• Parts of the columns:
  • Name, value, and timestamp

Column family databases - structure

• Value: specify the type depending on the database

Column family databases - structure

• Timestamps: store date and time when the data was inserted.
  • Multiple values of a column

Column family databases - example

Column family databases - designing

• Think about the queries
• No joins
  • Add all the columns we need

Popular column family databases

Let's practice!

NoSQL Concepts