[jira] [Created] (CASSANDRA-5959) CQL3 support for multi-column insert in a single operation (Batch Insert / Batch Mutate)

["Les Hazlewood (JIRA)" <ji...@apache.org>]

Les Hazlewood created CASSANDRA-5959:
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             Summary: CQL3 support for multi-column insert in a single operation (Batch Insert / Batch Mutate)
                 Key: CASSANDRA-5959
                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CASSANDRA-5959
             Project: Cassandra
          Issue Type: New Feature
          Components: Core, Drivers
            Reporter: Les Hazlewood


h3. Impetus for this Request

(from the original [question on StackOverflow|http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18522191/using-cassandra-and-cql3-how-do-you-insert-an-entire-wide-row-in-a-single-reque]):

I want to insert a single row with 50,000 columns into Cassandra 1.2.9. Before inserting, I have all the data for the entire row ready to go (in memory):

{code}
+---------+------+------+------+------+-------+
|         | 0    | 1    | 2    | ...  | 49999 |
| row_id  +------+------+------+------+-------+
|         | text | text | text | ...  | text  |
+---------+------+------+------|------+-------+
{code}

The column names are integers, allowing slicing for pagination. The column values are a value at that particular index.

CQL3 table definition:

{code}
create table results (
    row_id text,
    index int,
    value text,
    primary key (row_id, index)
) 
with compact storage;
{code}

As I already have the row_id and all 50,000 name/value pairs in memory, I just want to insert a single row into Cassandra in a single request/operation so it is as fast as possible.

The only thing I can seem to find is to do execute the following 50,000 times:

{code}
INSERT INTO results (row_id, index, value) values (my_row_id, ?, ?);
{code}

where the first {{?}} is is an index counter ({{i}}) and the second {{?}} is the text value to store at location {{i}}.

With the Datastax Java Driver client and C* server on the same development machine, this took a full minute to execute.

Oddly enough, the same 50,000 insert statements in a [Datastax Java Driver Batch|http://www.datastax.com/drivers/java/apidocs/com/datastax/driver/core/querybuilder/QueryBuilder.html#batch(com.datastax.driver.core.Statement...)] on the same machine took 7.5 minutes.  I thought batches were supposed to be _faster_ than individual inserts?

We tried instead with a Thrift client (Astyanax) and the same insert via a [MutationBatch|http://netflix.github.io/astyanax/javadoc/com/netflix/astyanax/MutationBatch.html].  This took _235 milliseconds_.


h3. Feature Request

As a result of this performance testing, this issue is to request that CQL3 support batch mutation operations as a single operation (statement) to ensure the same speed/performance benefits as existing Thrift clients.

Example suggested syntax (based on the above example table/column family):

{code}
insert into results (row_id, (index,value)) values 
    ((0,text0), (1,text1), (2,text2), ..., (N,textN));
{code}

Each value in the {{values}} clause is a tuple.  The first tuple element is the column name, the second tuple element is the column value.  This seems to be the most simple/accurate representation of what happens during a batch insert/mutate.

Not having this CQL feature forced us to remove the Datastax Java Driver (which we liked) in favor of Astyanax because Astyanax supports this behavior.  We desire feature/performance parity between Thrift and CQL3/Datastax Java Driver, so we hope this request improves both CQL3 and the Driver.


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