NAME

DBD::Cassandra - DBI database backend for Cassandra

VERSION

version 0.57

DESCRIPTION

DBD::Cassandra is a Perl5 Database Interface driver for Cassandra, using the CQL3 query language.

EXAMPLE

    use DBI;

    my $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:Cassandra:host=localhost;keyspace=test", $user, $password, { RaiseError => 1 });
    my $rows = $dbh->selectall_arrayref("SELECT id, field_one, field_two FROM some_table");

    for my $row (@$rows) {
        # Do something with your row
    }

    $dbh->do("INSERT INTO some_table (id, field_one, field_two) VALUES (?, ?, ?)",
        { Consistency => "quorum" },
        1, "String value", 38962986
    );

    $dbh->disconnect;

Configuration

Database handles
    use DBI;

    $dsn = "dbi:Cassandra:database=$database";
    $dsn = "dbi:Cassandra:keyspace=$keyspace;host=$hostname;port=$port";
    $dsn = "dbi:Cassandra:keyspace=$keyspace;consistency=local_quorum";

    my $dbh = DBI->connect($dsn, $username, $password);
keyspace
database
db

Optionally, a keyspace to use by default. If this is not specified, all queries must include the keyspace name.

hostname
hosts

Hostname to initially connect to. Defaults to localhost. Can be comma-separated to specify multiple hosts.

port

Port number to connect to. Defaults to 9042

compression

The compression method we should use for the connection. Currently Cassandra allows lz4 and snappy. Defaults to the algorithm with the best compression ratio, if the server supports it. Compression can be disabled by setting compression=none.

Only used for data frames longer than 512 bytes, smaller frames get sent uncompressed.

cql_version

There are several versions of the CQL language and this option lets you pick one. Defaults to the highest available version. Consult your Cassandra manual to see which versions your database supports.

consistency

See the chapter on consistency levels

request_timeout

Maximum amount of time (in seconds) to wait for a Cassandra network operation to finish.

read_timeout
write_timeout

Deprecated. These two are summed and used as request_timeout.

tls

Boolean (1|0); whether to use TLS. Defaults to off.

Statement handles
    my $sth= $dbh->prepare('SELECT "id", "field1", "field2" FROM table_name WHERE id=?', { Consistency => 'one' });
async

See "asynchronous queries".

consistency

See "consistency levels".

per_page

Cassandra supports pagination through result sets, to avoid having the entire result set in memory.

    my $sth = $dbh->prepare('SELECT id FROM tablename', { PerPage => 1000 });
    $sth->execute;
    while (my $row = $sth->fetchrow_arrayref()) {
        print "$row->[0]\n";
    }

It is important to keep in mind that this mode can cause errors while fetching rows, as extra queries may be executed by the driver internally.

COLLECTION TYPES

Cassandra supports collection types natively, eg. list and map. DBD::Cassandra translates them to native Perl types, eg. hashes and arrays.

When doing queries, placeholders can be substituted by these collections. For example, inserting a map into a table is done by passing a Perl hash.

    my $sth= $dbh->prepare('INSERT INTO some_table (id, value) VALUES (?,?);');
    $sth->execute(5, { days => 15 });

This will also work for IN queries, which accept an array.

    my $sth= $dbh->prepare('SELECT id, value FROM some_table WHERE id IN ?');
    $sth->execute([1, 2, 3]);
    my $rows= $sth->fetchall_arrayref();

ASYNCHRONOUS QUERIES

    my $sth= $dbh->prepare("SELECT id FROM some_table WHERE x=?",
        { async => 1 });
    $sth->execute(5);

    some_other_function();

    while (my $row = $sth->fetchrow_arrayref()) {
        print "$row->[0]\n";
    }

DBD::Cassandra supports asynchronous queries in an easy to use form. When async = 1> is passed to prepare(), any subsequent executes on the handle are not read back immediately. Instead, these are delayed until the result is actually needed.

For inserts and other writes, a convenience method x_finish_async is provided, which returns an approximation to what execute() would have returned in an non-asynchronous context. This method also raises errors, if needed.

    my $sth= $dbh->prepare("INSERT INTO table (a, b) VALUES (?, ?)",
        { async => 1 });
    $sth->execute(5, 6);

    some_other_function_that_takes_a_while();

    $sth->x_finish_async;

Performance considerations

When using asynchronous queries, some previously premature optimizations become relevant. For example, it is very helpful to re-use statement handles in large volumes of inserts :

    my @dataset_to_insert= ([1, 2, 3, 4], [5, 6, 7, 8]);
    my (@pending, @reusable);

    while (my $row= shift @dataset_to_insert) {
        my $sth= (shift @reusable) || $dbh->prepare(
            "INSERT INTO some_table (a, b, c, d) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?)"
        );
        $sth->execute(@$row);
        push @pending, $sth;

        if (@pending > 500) { # Tune this number!
            my $pending_sth= shift @pending;
            $pending_sth->x_finish_async;
            push @reusable, $pending_sth;
        }
    }

    $_->x_finish_async for @pending;

CONSISTENCY LEVELS

    $dbh->do("INSERT INTO some_table (id, field_name) VALUES (?, ?)",
        { Consistency => "quorum" },
        @values
    );

DBD::Cassandra accepts a Consistency attribute for statements. Supported consistency levels are any, one, two, three, quorum, all, local_quorum, each_quorum, serial, local_serial and local_one.

This attribute is ignored on statements that do not support it, such as CREATE.

A global consistency level can be defined as part of the DSN.

CAVEATS, BUGS, TODO

  • There is currently no support for transactions. begin_work will die if you try to use it.

  • Thread support is untested. Use at your own risk.

  • The timestamp format is implemented naively by returning milliseconds since the UNIX epoch. In Perl you get this number through time() * 1000. Trying to save times as DateTime objects or strings will not work, and will likely result in warnings and unexpected behavior.

  • When using asynchronous queries, more functions than just execute() may throw errors. It is recommended that you enable RaiseError. If this is not possible, it should also suffice to call $sth-x_finish_async> and check its return value before reading any data from the handle.

  • Cassandra/CQL3 is strict about the queries you write. When switching from other databases, such as MySQL, this may come as a surprise. This module supports quote(..), but try to use prepared statements instead. They will save you a lot of trouble.

UPGRADING

From versions 0.25 and lower

As of DBD::Cassandra 0.51, this module uses Cassandra::Client internally. The unit tests from the previous release all still pass, but there are subtle changes :

read_timeout/write_timeout are deprecated, use request_timeout instead
the driver now manages a pool of connections internally

Instead of only connecting to the one specified host, multiple hosts can be passed as seed-hosts. These are then used to bootstrap the actual internal pool of connections.

From versions 0.24 and lower

Prior to version 0.25 there was a bug corrupting float and double values as they were stored in the database. The endianness on these values was wrong, which only shows when reading stored data back in an application written using a different driver.

If you were writing float or double values using a DBD::Cassandra prior to 0.25, please be careful with this upgrade. A way to rewrite your values between the two formats is :

    my $good_float = unpack('f>', pack('f', $bad_float));
    my $good_double= unpack('d>', pack('d', $bad_double));

If you never used a DBD::Cassandra version prior to 0.25, or do not use floats or doubles, this bug does not affect you and upgrading to 0.25 is safe.

AUTHOR

Tom van der Woerdt <tvdw@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2017 by Tom van der Woerdt.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.