Cassandra allows you to group columns in “super columns”. You would create a super column family through cassandra-cli in the following way:
[default@keyspace1] create column family Super1 with column_type=Super;
632cf985-645e-11e0-ad9e-e700f669bcfc
Waiting for schema agreement...
... schemas agree across the cluster
To use a super column in pycassa, you only need to add an extra level to the dictionary:
>>> col_fam = pycassa.ColumnFamily(pool, 'Super1')
>>> col_fam.insert('row_key', {'supercol_name': {'col_name': 'col_val'}})
1354491238721345
>>> col_fam.get('row_key')
{'supercol_name': {'col_name': 'col_val'}}
The super_column parameter for get()-like methods allows you to be selective about what subcolumns you get from a single super column.
>>> col_fam = pycassa.ColumnFamily(pool, 'Letters')
>>> col_fam.insert('row_key', {'lowercase': {'a': '1', 'b': '2', 'c': '3'}})
1354491239132744
>>> col_fam.get('row_key', super_column='lowercase')
{'supercol1': {'a': '1': 'b': '2', 'c': '3'}}
>>> col_fam.get('row_key', super_column='lowercase', columns=['a', 'b'])
{'supercol1': {'a': '1': 'b': '2'}}
>>> col_fam.get('row_key', super_column='lowercase', column_start='b')
{'supercol1': {'b': '1': 'c': '2'}}
>>> col_fam.get('row_key', super_column='lowercase', column_finish='b', column_reversed=True)
{'supercol1': {'c': '2', 'b': '1'}}