DataStax C/C++ Driver for Apache Cassandra® and DataStax Products

A modern, feature-rich and highly tunable C/C++ client library for Apache Cassandra® 2.1+ using exclusively Cassandra’s binary protocol and Cassandra Query Language v3. This driver can also be used with other DataStax products:

Getting the Driver

Binary versions of the driver, available for multiple operating systems and multiple architectures, can be obtained from our download server. The source code is made available via GitHub.

Packages for the driver’s dependencies, libuv (1.x), OpenSSL, and zlib are also provided under the dependencies directory for each platform (if applicable). Note: CentOS and Ubuntu use the version of OpenSSL and zlib provided with the distribution:

Upgrading

Starting with DataStax C/C++ driver for Apache Cassandra® v2.15.0, DataStax Enterprise (DSE) support is now available; using the DSE driver exclusively is no longer required for DSE customers.

For DSE driver users

Linking changes will be required when migrating to this driver. Replace -ldse with -lcassandra.

For Cassandra driver users

No changes will be required when upgrading to this driver. There will be new driver dependencies when using any of the binary versions obtained from our download server as Kerberos is utilized in the DSE features of this driver. See the [installation] section for more information on obtaining the dependencies for a specific platform.

Features

Asynchronous API
Simple, Prepared, and Batch statements
Asynchronous I/O, parallel execution, and request pipelining
Connection pooling
Automatic node discovery
Automatic reconnection
Configurable load balancing
Works with any cluster size
Authentication
SSL
Latency-aware routing
Performance metrics
Tuples and UDTs
Nested collections
Retry policies
Client-side timestamps
Data types
Idle connection heartbeats
Support for materialized view and secondary index metadata
Support for clustering key order, frozen<> and Cassandra version metadata
Blacklist, whitelist DC, and blacklist DC load balancing policies
Custom authenticators
Reverse DNS with SSL peer identity verification support
Randomized contact points
Speculative execution
DSE Features
- DSE authentication
  - Plaintext/DSE
  - LDAP
  - GSSAPI (Kerberos)
- DSE geospatial types
- DSE proxy authentication and proxy execution
- DSE DateRange
Support for DataStax Astra Cloud Data Platform

Compatibility

This driver works exclusively with the Cassandra Query Language v3 (CQL3) and Cassandra’s native protocol. The current version works with:

Apache Cassandra® versions 2.1, 2.2 and 3.0+
Architectures: 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64)
Compilers: GCC 4.1.2+, Clang 3.4+, and MSVC 2010/2012/2013/2015/2017/2019

A complete compatibility matrix for both Apache Cassandra® and DataStax Enterprise can be found here.

Disclaimer: DataStax products do not support big-endian systems.

Documentation

Getting Help

JIRA: https://datastax-oss.atlassian.net/browse/CPP
Mailing List: https://groups.google.com/a/lists.datastax.com/forum/#!forum/cpp-driver-user

Examples

The driver includes several examples in the examples directory.

A Simple Example

#include <cassandra.h>
/* Use "#include <dse.h>" when connecting to DataStax Enterpise */
#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
  /* Setup and connect to cluster */
  CassFuture* connect_future = NULL;
  CassCluster* cluster = cass_cluster_new();
  CassSession* session = cass_session_new();
  char* hosts = "127.0.0.1";
  if (argc > 1) {
    hosts = argv[1];
  }

  /* Add contact points */
  cass_cluster_set_contact_points(cluster, hosts);

  /* Provide the cluster object as configuration to connect the session */
  connect_future = cass_session_connect(session, cluster);

  if (cass_future_error_code(connect_future) == CASS_OK) {
    CassFuture* close_future = NULL;

    /* Build statement and execute query */
    const char* query = "SELECT release_version FROM system.local";
    CassStatement* statement = cass_statement_new(query, 0);

    CassFuture* result_future = cass_session_execute(session, statement);

    if (cass_future_error_code(result_future) == CASS_OK) {
      /* Retrieve result set and get the first row */
      const CassResult* result = cass_future_get_result(result_future);
      const CassRow* row = cass_result_first_row(result);

      if (row) {
        const CassValue* value = cass_row_get_column_by_name(row, "release_version");

        const char* release_version;
        size_t release_version_length;
        cass_value_get_string(value, &release_version, &release_version_length);
        printf("release_version: '%.*s'\n", (int)release_version_length, release_version);
      }

      cass_result_free(result);
    } else {
      /* Handle error */
      const char* message;
      size_t message_length;
      cass_future_error_message(result_future, &message, &message_length);
      fprintf(stderr, "Unable to run query: '%.*s'\n", (int)message_length, message);
    }

    cass_statement_free(statement);
    cass_future_free(result_future);

    /* Close the session */
    close_future = cass_session_close(session);
    cass_future_wait(close_future);
    cass_future_free(close_future);
  } else {
    /* Handle error */
    const char* message;
    size_t message_length;
    cass_future_error_message(connect_future, &message, &message_length);
    fprintf(stderr, "Unable to connect: '%.*s'\n", (int)message_length, message);
  }

  cass_future_free(connect_future);
  cass_cluster_free(cluster);
  cass_session_free(session);

  return 0;
}

License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the “License”); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an “AS IS” BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.