---
layout: docpage

title: "Documentation"

is_homepage: false
is_sphinx_doc: true

doc-parent: "Getting Started"

doc-title: "Inserting and querying"
doc-header-links: '
  <link rel="top" title="Apache Cassandra Documentation v4.0-alpha4" href="../index.html"/>
      <link rel="up" title="Getting Started" href="index.html"/>
      <link rel="next" title="Client drivers" href="drivers.html"/>
      <link rel="prev" title="Configuring Cassandra" href="configuring.html"/>
'
doc-search-path: "../search.html"

extra-footer: '
<script type="text/javascript">
    var DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS = {
      URL_ROOT:    "",
      VERSION:     "",
      COLLAPSE_INDEX: false,
      FILE_SUFFIX: ".html",
      HAS_SOURCE:  false,
      SOURCELINK_SUFFIX: ".txt"
    };
</script>
'

---
<div class="container-fluid">
  <div class="row">
    <div class="col-md-3">
      <div class="doc-navigation">
        <div class="doc-menu" role="navigation">
          <div class="navbar-header">
            <button type="button" class="pull-left navbar-toggle" data-toggle="collapse" data-target=".sidebar-navbar-collapse">
              <span class="sr-only">Toggle navigation</span>
              <span class="icon-bar"></span>
              <span class="icon-bar"></span>
              <span class="icon-bar"></span>
            </button>
          </div>
          <div class="navbar-collapse collapse sidebar-navbar-collapse">
            <form id="doc-search-form" class="navbar-form" action="../search.html" method="get" role="search">
              <div class="form-group">
                <input type="text" size="30" class="form-control input-sm" name="q" placeholder="Search docs">
                <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" />
                <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" />
              </div>
            </form>
            
            
            <ul class="current">
<li class="toctree-l1 current"><a class="reference internal" href="index.html">Getting Started</a><ul class="current">
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="installing.html">Installing Cassandra</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="configuring.html">Configuring Cassandra</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l2 current"><a class="current reference internal" href="#">Inserting and querying</a><ul>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="#cqlsh">CQLSH</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l3"><a class="reference internal" href="#client-drivers">Client drivers</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="drivers.html">Client drivers</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../new/index.html">New Features in Apache Cassandra 4.0</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../architecture/index.html">Architecture</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../cql/index.html">The Cassandra Query Language (CQL)</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../data_modeling/index.html">Data Modeling</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../configuration/index.html">Configuring Cassandra</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../operating/index.html">Operating Cassandra</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../tools/index.html">Cassandra Tools</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../troubleshooting/index.html">Troubleshooting</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../development/index.html">Contributing to Cassandra</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../faq/index.html">Frequently Asked Questions</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../plugins/index.html">Third-Party Plugins</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../bugs.html">Reporting Bugs</a></li>
<li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="../contactus.html">Contact us</a></li>
</ul>

            
          </div><!--/.nav-collapse -->
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="col-md-8">
      <div class="content doc-content">
        <div class="content-container">
          
  <div class="section" id="inserting-and-querying">
<h1>Inserting and querying<a class="headerlink" href="#inserting-and-querying" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>The API to Cassandra is <a class="reference internal" href="../cql/index.html#cql"><span class="std std-ref">CQL</span></a>, the Cassandra Query Language. To use CQL, you will need to connect to the
cluster, which can be done:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>either using cqlsh,</li>
<li>or through a client driver for Cassandra.</li>
</ul>
<div class="section" id="cqlsh">
<h2>CQLSH<a class="headerlink" href="#cqlsh" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>cqlsh is a command line shell for interacting with Cassandra through 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:</p>
<div class="highlight-default notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span>$ bin/cqlsh localhost
Connected to Test Cluster at localhost:9042.
[cqlsh 5.0.1 | Cassandra 3.8 | CQL spec 3.4.2 | Native protocol v4]
Use HELP for help.
cqlsh&gt; SELECT cluster_name, listen_address FROM system.local;

 cluster_name | listen_address
--------------+----------------
 Test Cluster |      127.0.0.1

(1 rows)
cqlsh&gt;
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>See the <a class="reference internal" href="../tools/cqlsh.html#cqlsh"><span class="std std-ref">cqlsh section</span></a> for full documentation.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="client-drivers">
<h2>Client drivers<a class="headerlink" href="#client-drivers" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>A lot of client drivers are provided by the Community and a list of known drivers is provided in <a class="reference internal" href="drivers.html#client-drivers"><span class="std std-ref">the next section</span></a>. You should refer to the documentation of each drivers for more information on how to use them.</p>
</div>
</div>


          <div class="doc-prev-next-links" role="navigation" aria-label="footer navigation">
            
            <a href="drivers.html" class="btn btn-default pull-right " role="button" title="Client drivers" accesskey="n">Next <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-circle-arrow-right" aria-hidden="true"></span></a>
            
            
            <a href="configuring.html" class="btn btn-default" role="button" title="Configuring Cassandra" accesskey="p"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-circle-arrow-left" aria-hidden="true"></span> Previous</a>
            
          </div>
          
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>