Files
scylladb/docs
Piotr Dulikowski 9fc2c65d18 Merge 'cql3: implement WRITETIME() and TTL() of individual elements of map, set, and UDT' from Nadav Har'El
In commit 727f68e0f5 we added the ability to SELECT:

* Individual elements of a map: `SELECT map_col[key]`.
* Individual elements of a set: `SELECT set_col[key]` returns key if the key exists in the set, or null if it doesn't, allowing to check if the element exists in the set.
* Individual pieces of a UDT: `SELECT udt_col.field`.

But at the time, we didn't provide any way to retrieve the **meta-data** for this value, namely its timestamp and TTL. We did not support `SELECT TIMESTAMP(collection[key])`, or `SELECT TIMESTAMP(udt.field)`.

Users requested to support such SELECTs in the past (see issue #15427), and Cassandra 5.0 added support for this feature - for both maps and sets and udts - so we also need this feature for compatibility. This feature was also requested recently by vector-search developers, who wanted to read Alternator columns - stored as map elements, not individual columns - with their WRITETIME information.

The first four patches in this series adds the feature (in four smaller patches instead one big one), the fifth and sixth patches add tests (cqlpy and boost tests, respectively). The seventh patch adds documentation.

All the new tests pass on Cassandra 5, failed on Scylla before the present fix, and pass with it.

The fix was surprisingly difficult. Our existing implementation (from 727f68e0f5 building on earlier machinery) doesn't just "read" `map_col[key]` and allow us to return just its timestamp. Rather, the implementation reads the entire map, serializes it in some temporary format that does **not** include the timestamps and ttls, and then takes the subscript key, at which point we no longer have the timestamp or ttl of the element. So the fix had to cross all these layers of the implementation.

While adding support for UDT fields in a pre-existing grammar nonterminal "subscriptExpr", we unintentionally added support for UDT fields also in LWT expressions (which used this nonterminal). LWT missing support for UDT fields was a long-time known compatibility issue (#13624) so we unintentionally fixed it :-) Actually, to completely fix it we needed another small change in the expression implementation, so the eighth patch in this series does this.

Fixes #15427
Fixes #13624

Closes scylladb/scylladb#29134

* github.com:scylladb/scylladb:
  cql3: support UDT fields in LWT expressions
  cql3: document WRITETIME() and TTL() for elements of map, set or UDT
  test/boost: test WRITETIME() and TTL() on map collection elements
  test/cqlpy: test WRITETIME() and TTL() on element of map, set or UDT
  cql3: prepare and evaluate WRITETIME/TTL on collection elements and UDT fields
  cql3: parse per-element timestamps/TTLs in the selection layer
  cql3: add extended wire format for per-element timestamps and TTLs
  cql3: extend WRITETIME/TTL grammar to accept collection and UDT elements
2026-04-14 12:35:46 +02:00
..
2025-12-14 11:48:48 +02:00
2026-03-11 16:56:51 +02:00
2026-03-11 16:56:51 +02:00
2026-03-11 16:56:51 +02:00
2026-03-11 16:56:51 +02:00

ScyllaDB Documentation

This repository contains the source files for ScyllaDB documentation.

  • The dev folder contains developer-oriented documentation related to the ScyllaDB code base. It is not published and is only available via GitHub.
  • All other folders and files contain user-oriented documentation related to ScyllaDB and are sources for docs.scylladb.com/manual.

To report a documentation bug or suggest an improvement, open an issue in GitHub issues for this project.

To contribute to the documentation, open a GitHub pull request.

Key Guidelines for Contributors

To prevent the build from failing:

  • If you add a new file, ensure it's added to an appropriate toctree, for example:

     .. toctree::
        :maxdepth: 2
        :hidden:
    
        Page X </folder1/article1>
        Page Y </folder1/article2>
        Your New Page </folder1/your-new-article>
    
  • Make sure the link syntax is correct. See the guidelines on creating links

  • Make sure the section headings are correct. See the guidelines on creating headings Note that the markup must be at least as long as the text in the heading. For example:

    ----------------------
    Prerequisites
    ----------------------
    

Building User Documentation

Prerequisites

  • Python
  • poetry
  • make

See the ScyllaDB Sphinx Theme prerequisites to check which versions of the above are currently required.

Mac OS X

You must have a working Homebrew in order to install the needed tools.

You also need the standard utility make.

Check if you have these two items with the following commands:

brew help
make -h

Linux Distributions

Building the user docs should work out of the box on most Linux distributions.

Windows

Use "Bash on Ubuntu on Windows" for the same tools and capabilities as on Linux distributions.

Building the Docs

  1. Run make preview in the docs/ directory to build the documentation.
  2. Preview the built documentation locally at http://127.0.0.1:5500/.

Cleanup

You can clean up all the build products and auto-installed Python stuff with:

make pristine

Information for Contributors

If you are interested in contributing to Scylla docs, please read the Scylla open source page at http://www.scylladb.com/opensource/ and complete a Scylla contributor agreement if needed. We can only accept documentation pull requests if we have a contributor agreement on file for you.

Third-party Documentation

  • Do any copying as a separate commit. Always commit an unmodified version first and then do any editing in a separate commit.

  • We already have a copy of the Apache license in our tree, so you do not need to commit a copy of the license.

  • Include the copyright header from the source file in the edited version. If you are copying an Apache Cassandra document with no copyright header, use:

This document includes material from Apache Cassandra.
Apache Cassandra is Copyright 2009-2014 The Apache Software Foundation.