Cassandra CQL INSERT query rejected for unconfigured column family

Question

I'm trying to insert some rows into a Cassandra (1.2.16) database with CQL, but the Datastax API call is being rejected. The query is created through a PreparedStatement and executed with a BoundStatement like so

session.Execute (boundStatement); 
// query is
INSERT INTO "KeyspaceName.ColumnFamilyName" (key, column1, value) VALUES (?, ?, ?)

It gets rejected with

Caught an exception Cassandra.InvalidQueryException: unconfigured columnfamily KeyspaceName.ColumnFamilyName
// which happens at the Execute call above

However, I can see that the column family does exist

var cluster = Cluster.Builder ()
    .AddContactPoint ("127.0.0.1")
    .Build ();

new List<string> (cluster.Metadata.GetKeyspaces ()).ForEach ((value) => {
    Console.WriteLine ("Keyspace: " + value);

    new List<string> (cluster.Metadata.GetKeyspace(value).GetTablesNames()).ForEach((tableName) => {
        Console.WriteLine("Table: " + tableName);
    });
});

which prints (among others)

Keyspace: KeyspaceName
Table: ColumnFamilyName

So the column family is there.

Why can't Cassandra find the table/column family when executing the CQL INSERT query? Is this a version issue? I'm under the impression that newer versions of CQL refer to column families as tables. How should I configure the table?

Lyuben Todorov Lyuben Todorov · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-20T20:02:18

The exception basically means you haven't created that column family. You can retrieve it however the exception is telling you its looking for a cf named KeyspaceName.ColumnFamilyName. You have to have "KeyspaceName" and "ColumnFamilyName" in separate quotation marks, otherwise the parser will think you are only supplying a name for a column family. It will see your query as, I want to insert data into a column family of name "KeyspaceName.ColumnFamilyName", so try:

INSERT INTO "KeyspaceName"."ColumnFamilyName" (key, column1, value) VALUES (?, ?, ?)
                         ^ ^
                         | 
                         This is where the magic happens!

Cassandra CQL INSERT query rejected for unconfigured column family

1 Answers