Sorry about the format, it was supposed to come out in a table. -----Original Message----- From: Aryeh Berkowitz [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2009 8:49 AM To: [email protected] Subject: HBase Schema
I have a question about schema creation. If my understanding is correct, HBase is a NoSQL database which according to Wikipedia is "Data stores that may not require fixed table schemas, and usually avoid join operations." Coming from a relational background, it's challenging to wrap my mind around it, but I think I understand it. So for example, if I would have a person table and I want to store information about all the cars that he owns, in a relational database I would make two tables, a person table and a cars table something like this: Person Table ID Name Address 1 Frank 1234 Main St. Cars Table Person_ID Year Make Model 1 2001 Toyota Camry 1 2004 Mazda Protégé 1 2003 Nissan Sentra In HBase I'm thinking to put everything on one row in one table since it's possible to create columns on the fly: Person & Cars Person Family Cars Family Name Address Car1:Year Car1:Make Car1:Model Car2:Year Car2:Make Car2:Model Car3:Year Car3:Make Car3:Model Frank 1234 Main St. 2001 Toyota Camry 2004 Mazda Protégé 2003 Nissan Sentra It seems a little harder for the programmers though to work with this type of model. Am I on the right track? I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on this matter. Thanks!
