There is some more details in http://www.datastax.com/dev/blog/thrift-to-cql3 but to answer your questions:
> Question 1: > What is the empty column/value? The technical reasons are here: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CASSANDRA-4361. But basically, it's a CQL3 implementation detail. Question 2: > It also appears as though the column names are CompositeType even > though there is only one component: Yes, it is the case, and the reason is that this is required to accept collections (even if you don't use collection initially, not using a composite means you wouldn't be able to add some later). If you explicitly don't want a compositeType underneath, you'll need to use the 'WITH COMPACT STORAGE' option (in which case you will not be able to use collections obviously). -- Sylvain
