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   <div class="section" id="rdbms-design">
 <h1>RDBMS Design<a class="headerlink" href="#rdbms-design" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
 <p>When you set out to build a new data-driven application that will use a
 relational database, you might start by modeling the domain as a set of
 properly normalized tables and use foreign keys to reference related
 data in other tables.</p>
 <p>The figure below shows how you might represent the data storage for your application
 using a relational database model. The relational model includes a
 couple of “join” tables in order to realize the many-to-many
 relationships from the conceptual model of hotels-to-points of interest,
 rooms-to-amenities, rooms-to-availability, and guests-to-rooms (via a
 reservation).</p>
 <img alt="../_images/data_modeling_hotel_relational.png" src="../_images/data_modeling_hotel_relational.png" />
 <div class="section" id="design-differences-between-rdbms-and-cassandra">
 <h2>Design Differences Between RDBMS and Cassandra<a class="headerlink" href="#design-differences-between-rdbms-and-cassandra" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
 <p>Let’s take a minute to highlight some of the key differences in doing
 ata modeling for Cassandra versus a relational database.</p>
 <div class="section" id="no-joins">
 <h3>No joins<a class="headerlink" href="#no-joins" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
 <p>You cannot perform joins in Cassandra. If you have designed a data model
 and find that you need something like a join, you’ll have to either do
 the work on the client side, or create a denormalized second table that
 represents the join results for you. This latter option is preferred in
 Cassandra data modeling. Performing joins on the client should be a very
 rare case; you really want to duplicate (denormalize) the data instead.</p>
 </div>
 <div class="section" id="no-referential-integrity">
 <h3>No referential integrity<a class="headerlink" href="#no-referential-integrity" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
 <p>Although Cassandra supports features such as lightweight transactions
 and batches, Cassandra itself has no concept of referential integrity
 across tables. In a relational database, you could specify foreign keys
 in a table to reference the primary key of a record in another table.
 But Cassandra does not enforce this. It is still a common design
 requirement to store IDs related to other entities in your tables, but
 operations such as cascading deletes are not available.</p>
 </div>
 <div class="section" id="denormalization">
 <h3>Denormalization<a class="headerlink" href="#denormalization" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
 <p>In relational database design, you are often taught the importance of
 normalization. This is not an advantage when working with Cassandra
 because it performs best when the data model is denormalized. It is
 often the case that companies end up denormalizing data in relational
 databases as well. There are two common reasons for this. One is
 performance. Companies simply can’t get the performance they need when
 they have to do so many joins on years’ worth of data, so they
 denormalize along the lines of known queries. This ends up working, but
 goes against the grain of how relational databases are intended to be
 designed, and ultimately makes one question whether using a relational
 database is the best approach in these circumstances.</p>
 <p>A second reason that relational databases get denormalized on purpose is
 a business document structure that requires retention. That is, you have
 an enclosing table that refers to a lot of external tables whose data
 could change over time, but you need to preserve the enclosing document
 as a snapshot in history. The common example here is with invoices. You
 already have customer and product tables, and you’d think that you could
 just make an invoice that refers to those tables. But this should never
 be done in practice. Customer or price information could change, and
 then you would lose the integrity of the invoice document as it was on
 the invoice date, which could violate audits, reports, or laws, and
 cause other problems.</p>
 <p>In the relational world, denormalization violates Codd’s normal forms,
 and you try to avoid it. But in Cassandra, denormalization is, well,
 perfectly normal. It’s not required if your data model is simple. But
 don’t be afraid of it.</p>
 <p>Historically, denormalization in Cassandra has required designing and
 managing multiple tables using techniques described in this documentation.
 Beginning with the 3.0 release, Cassandra provides a feature known
 as <a class="reference internal" href="../cql/mvs.html#materialized-views"><span class="std std-ref">materialized views</span></a>
 which allows you to create multiple denormalized
 views of data based on a base table design. Cassandra manages
 materialized views on the server, including the work of keeping the
 views in sync with the table.</p>
 </div>
 <div class="section" id="query-first-design">
 <h3>Query-first design<a class="headerlink" href="#query-first-design" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
 <p>Relational modeling, in simple terms, means that you start from the
 conceptual domain and then represent the nouns in the domain in tables.
 You then assign primary keys and foreign keys to model relationships.
 When you have a many-to-many relationship, you create the join tables
 that represent just those keys. The join tables don’t exist in the real
 world, and are a necessary side effect of the way relational models
 work. After you have all your tables laid out, you can start writing
 queries that pull together disparate data using the relationships
 defined by the keys. The queries in the relational world are very much
 secondary. It is assumed that you can always get the data you want as
 long as you have your tables modeled properly. Even if you have to use
 several complex subqueries or join statements, this is usually true.</p>
 <p>By contrast, in Cassandra you don’t start with the data model; you start
 with the query model. Instead of modeling the data first and then
 writing queries, with Cassandra you model the queries and let the data
 be organized around them. Think of the most common query paths your
 application will use, and then create the tables that you need to
 support them.</p>
 <p>Detractors have suggested that designing the queries first is overly
 constraining on application design, not to mention database modeling.
 But it is perfectly reasonable to expect that you should think hard
 about the queries in your application, just as you would, presumably,
 think hard about your relational domain. You may get it wrong, and then
 you’ll have problems in either world. Or your query needs might change
 over time, and then you’ll have to work to update your data set. But
 this is no different from defining the wrong tables, or needing
 additional tables, in an RDBMS.</p>
 </div>
 <div class="section" id="designing-for-optimal-storage">
 <h3>Designing for optimal storage<a class="headerlink" href="#designing-for-optimal-storage" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
 <p>In a relational database, it is frequently transparent to the user how
 tables are stored on disk, and it is rare to hear of recommendations
 about data modeling based on how the RDBMS might store tables on disk.
 However, that is an important consideration in Cassandra. Because
 Cassandra tables are each stored in separate files on disk, it’s
 important to keep related columns defined together in the same table.</p>
 <p>A key goal that you will see as you begin creating data models in
 Cassandra is to minimize the number of partitions that must be searched
 in order to satisfy a given query. Because the partition is a unit of
 storage that does not get divided across nodes, a query that searches a
 single partition will typically yield the best performance.</p>
 </div>
 <div class="section" id="sorting-is-a-design-decision">
 <h3>Sorting is a design decision<a class="headerlink" href="#sorting-is-a-design-decision" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
 <p>In an RDBMS, you can easily change the order in which records are
 returned to you by using <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ORDER</span> <span class="pre">BY</span></code> in your query. The default sort
 order is not configurable; by default, records are returned in the order
 in which they are written. If you want to change the order, you just
 modify your query, and you can sort by any list of columns.</p>
 <p>In Cassandra, however, sorting is treated differently; it is a design
 decision. The sort order available on queries is fixed, and is
 determined entirely by the selection of clustering columns you supply in
 the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">CREATE</span> <span class="pre">TABLE</span></code> command. The CQL <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">SELECT</span></code> statement does support
 <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ORDER</span> <span class="pre">BY</span></code> semantics, but only in the order specified by the
 clustering columns.</p>
 <p><em>Material adapted from Cassandra, The Definitive Guide. Published by
 O’Reilly Media, Inc. Copyright © 2020 Jeff Carpenter, Eben Hewitt.
 All rights reserved. Used with permission.</em></p>
 </div>
 </div>
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	<div class="section" id="rdbms-design">
	<h1>RDBMS Design<a class="headerlink" href="#rdbms-design" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
	<p>When you set out to build a new data-driven application that will use a
	relational database, you might start by modeling the domain as a set of
	properly normalized tables and use foreign keys to reference related
	data in other tables.</p>
	<p>The figure below shows how you might represent the data storage for your application
	using a relational database model. The relational model includes a
	couple of “join” tables in order to realize the many-to-many
	relationships from the conceptual model of hotels-to-points of interest,
	rooms-to-amenities, rooms-to-availability, and guests-to-rooms (via a
	reservation).</p>
	<img alt="../_images/data_modeling_hotel_relational.png" src="../_images/data_modeling_hotel_relational.png" />
	<div class="section" id="design-differences-between-rdbms-and-cassandra">
	<h2>Design Differences Between RDBMS and Cassandra<a class="headerlink" href="#design-differences-between-rdbms-and-cassandra" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
	<p>Let’s take a minute to highlight some of the key differences in doing
	ata modeling for Cassandra versus a relational database.</p>
	<div class="section" id="no-joins">
	<h3>No joins<a class="headerlink" href="#no-joins" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
	<p>You cannot perform joins in Cassandra. If you have designed a data model
	and find that you need something like a join, you’ll have to either do
	the work on the client side, or create a denormalized second table that
	represents the join results for you. This latter option is preferred in
	Cassandra data modeling. Performing joins on the client should be a very
	rare case; you really want to duplicate (denormalize) the data instead.</p>
	</div>
	<div class="section" id="no-referential-integrity">
	<h3>No referential integrity<a class="headerlink" href="#no-referential-integrity" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
	<p>Although Cassandra supports features such as lightweight transactions
	and batches, Cassandra itself has no concept of referential integrity
	across tables. In a relational database, you could specify foreign keys
	in a table to reference the primary key of a record in another table.
	But Cassandra does not enforce this. It is still a common design
	requirement to store IDs related to other entities in your tables, but
	operations such as cascading deletes are not available.</p>
	</div>
	<div class="section" id="denormalization">
	<h3>Denormalization<a class="headerlink" href="#denormalization" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
	<p>In relational database design, you are often taught the importance of
	normalization. This is not an advantage when working with Cassandra
	because it performs best when the data model is denormalized. It is
	often the case that companies end up denormalizing data in relational
	databases as well. There are two common reasons for this. One is
	performance. Companies simply can’t get the performance they need when
	they have to do so many joins on years’ worth of data, so they
	denormalize along the lines of known queries. This ends up working, but
	goes against the grain of how relational databases are intended to be
	designed, and ultimately makes one question whether using a relational
	database is the best approach in these circumstances.</p>
	<p>A second reason that relational databases get denormalized on purpose is
	a business document structure that requires retention. That is, you have
	an enclosing table that refers to a lot of external tables whose data
	could change over time, but you need to preserve the enclosing document
	as a snapshot in history. The common example here is with invoices. You
	already have customer and product tables, and you’d think that you could
	just make an invoice that refers to those tables. But this should never
	be done in practice. Customer or price information could change, and
	then you would lose the integrity of the invoice document as it was on
	the invoice date, which could violate audits, reports, or laws, and
	cause other problems.</p>
	<p>In the relational world, denormalization violates Codd’s normal forms,
	and you try to avoid it. But in Cassandra, denormalization is, well,
	perfectly normal. It’s not required if your data model is simple. But
	don’t be afraid of it.</p>
	<p>Historically, denormalization in Cassandra has required designing and
	managing multiple tables using techniques described in this documentation.
	Beginning with the 3.0 release, Cassandra provides a feature known
	as <a class="reference internal" href="../cql/mvs.html#materialized-views"><span class="std std-ref">materialized views</span></a>
	which allows you to create multiple denormalized
	views of data based on a base table design. Cassandra manages
	materialized views on the server, including the work of keeping the
	views in sync with the table.</p>
	</div>
	<div class="section" id="query-first-design">
	<h3>Query-first design<a class="headerlink" href="#query-first-design" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
	<p>Relational modeling, in simple terms, means that you start from the
	conceptual domain and then represent the nouns in the domain in tables.
	You then assign primary keys and foreign keys to model relationships.
	When you have a many-to-many relationship, you create the join tables
	that represent just those keys. The join tables don’t exist in the real
	world, and are a necessary side effect of the way relational models
	work. After you have all your tables laid out, you can start writing
	queries that pull together disparate data using the relationships
	defined by the keys. The queries in the relational world are very much
	secondary. It is assumed that you can always get the data you want as
	long as you have your tables modeled properly. Even if you have to use
	several complex subqueries or join statements, this is usually true.</p>
	<p>By contrast, in Cassandra you don’t start with the data model; you start
	with the query model. Instead of modeling the data first and then
	writing queries, with Cassandra you model the queries and let the data
	be organized around them. Think of the most common query paths your
	application will use, and then create the tables that you need to
	support them.</p>
	<p>Detractors have suggested that designing the queries first is overly
	constraining on application design, not to mention database modeling.
	But it is perfectly reasonable to expect that you should think hard
	about the queries in your application, just as you would, presumably,
	think hard about your relational domain. You may get it wrong, and then
	you’ll have problems in either world. Or your query needs might change
	over time, and then you’ll have to work to update your data set. But
	this is no different from defining the wrong tables, or needing
	additional tables, in an RDBMS.</p>
	</div>
	<div class="section" id="designing-for-optimal-storage">
	<h3>Designing for optimal storage<a class="headerlink" href="#designing-for-optimal-storage" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
	<p>In a relational database, it is frequently transparent to the user how
	tables are stored on disk, and it is rare to hear of recommendations
	about data modeling based on how the RDBMS might store tables on disk.
	However, that is an important consideration in Cassandra. Because
	Cassandra tables are each stored in separate files on disk, it’s
	important to keep related columns defined together in the same table.</p>
	<p>A key goal that you will see as you begin creating data models in
	Cassandra is to minimize the number of partitions that must be searched
	in order to satisfy a given query. Because the partition is a unit of
	storage that does not get divided across nodes, a query that searches a
	single partition will typically yield the best performance.</p>
	</div>
	<div class="section" id="sorting-is-a-design-decision">
	<h3>Sorting is a design decision<a class="headerlink" href="#sorting-is-a-design-decision" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
	<p>In an RDBMS, you can easily change the order in which records are
	returned to you by using <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ORDER</span> <span class="pre">BY</span></code> in your query. The default sort
	order is not configurable; by default, records are returned in the order
	in which they are written. If you want to change the order, you just
	modify your query, and you can sort by any list of columns.</p>
	<p>In Cassandra, however, sorting is treated differently; it is a design
	decision. The sort order available on queries is fixed, and is
	determined entirely by the selection of clustering columns you supply in
	the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">CREATE</span> <span class="pre">TABLE</span></code> command. The CQL <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">SELECT</span></code> statement does support
	<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ORDER</span> <span class="pre">BY</span></code> semantics, but only in the order specified by the
	clustering columns.</p>
	<p><em>Material adapted from Cassandra, The Definitive Guide. Published by
	O’Reilly Media, Inc. Copyright © 2020 Jeff Carpenter, Eben Hewitt.
	All rights reserved. Used with permission.</em></p>
	</div>
	</div>
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