We had a similar question, a column inserted with a null value also results in a tombstone.
Also see the (closed) issue about this: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/CASSANDRA-6674 On 13 Feb 2014, at 16:35, Adam Patacchiola <a...@2fours.com> wrote: > I have a table defined in cql like this: > > CREATE TABLE chatmessages ( > username varchar, > spotname varchar, > id varint, > iv varchar, > fromuser varchar, > fromversion varchar, > touser varchar, > toversion varchar, > datetime timestamp, > data varchar, > mimetype varchar, > datasize int, > shareable boolean, > PRIMARY KEY (username, spotname, id) > ) > > That I insert messages into. Occasionally "rows" are deleted. My question is > why, when I query for a "row" using a select query specific to only that > "row" which contains cells that have never been deleted such as: > > select * from chatmessages where username='adam' and spotname='adam:cherie' > and id =1860; > > Am I seeing in the cqlsh trace that 1 tombstoned cell has been read: > > "Read 1 live and 1 tombstoned cells" > > Thanks for any way you can help increase my understanding of what's going on > here. > > Adam
