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Column databases

columnar or column oriented databases

Hussein Nasser video

Examples

  • Apache Cassandra
  • Sentry uses a columnar database too??

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column-database-example.png

SELECT * FROM table WHERE id=1

Writes (and updates) are very slow

Writes and reads are complex

Row vs Column database

When to use row based

  • default, handles most cases well enough
    • the power drill of databases
  • read & write
  • OLTP
    • online transaction processing
    • concurrent transactions
      • online banking, shopping, texting
  • efficient queries with multiple columns

When to use column database

  • data lakes and warehouses
    • data is static
    • need to aggregate a lot
  • when you don't have a lot of writes
  • OLAP
    • online analytical processing
    • business insights from data

Last update: 2023-04-24