Representation of dynamically added columns in table (column family) schema using cqlsh

[Shahab Yunus]

A basic question and it seems that I have a gap in my understanding.

I have a simple table in Cassandra with multiple column families. I add new
columns to each of these column families on the fly. When I view (using the
'DESCRIBE table' command) the schema of a particular column family, I see
only one entry for column (bolded below). What is the reason for that? The
column that I am adding have string names and byte values, written using
Hector 1.1-3 (
HFactory.createColumn(...) method).

CREATE TABLE mytable (
  key text,
  *column1* ascii,
  value blob,
  PRIMARY KEY (key, column1)
) WITH COMPACT STORAGE AND
  bloom_filter_fp_chance=0.010000 AND
  caching='KEYS_ONLY' AND
  comment='' AND
  dclocal_read_repair_chance=0.000000 AND
  gc_grace_seconds=864000 AND
  read_repair_chance=1.000000 AND
  replicate_on_write='true' AND
  populate_io_cache_on_flush='false' AND
  compaction={'class': 'SizeTieredCompactionStrategy'} AND
  compression={'sstable_compression': 'SnappyCompressor'};

cqlsh 3.0.2
Cassandra 1.2.5
CQL spec 3.0.0
Thrift protocol 19.36.0


Given this, I can also only query on this one column1 or value using the
'SELECT' statement.

The OpsCenter on the other hand, displays multiple columns as
expected. Basically the demarcation of multiple columns i clearer.

Thanks a lot.

Regards,
Shahab