Why does it take so long to create a table?

Question

I am creating the following schema:

CREATE TABLE stats_by_site_tracking_hourly (
    d_tally text, -- 2016-02
    d_date timestamp, -- 2016-02-01 13
    site_id int,
    is_new_member int, -- 1/0
    device text, -- desktop/tablet/mobile/unknown
    tracking_medium text,
    tracking_source text,
    tracking_campaign text,
    tracking_term text,
    accepted counter,
    adjusted_accepted counter,
    rejected counter,
    adjusted_rejected counter,
    error counter,
    impressions_positive counter,
    adjusted_impressions_positive counter,
    impressions_negative counter,
    adjusted_impressions_negative counter,
    revenue counter,
    adjusted_revenue counter,
    reversals_rejected counter,
    reversals_revenue counter,
    PRIMARY KEY ((d_tally), site_id, d_date, is_new_member, device, tracking_medium, tracking_source, tracking_campaign, tracking_term)
);

When I run the statement, it seems that the first few columns are processed quickly however when it moves onto the counter columns it slows down more and more for every column.

I have left this statement running for 5 minutes and it still hasn't completed.

Could anyone offer some insight into this behaviour?

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This is what CQLSH looks like as the table is being created, and when the screenshot was taken it hadn't progressed for 20 minutes or so.

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I just put the create table command into one line and it worked instantly.

CREATE TABLE stats_by_site_tracking_hourly ( d_tally text, d_date timestamp, site_id int, is_new_member int, device text, tracking_medium text, tracking_source text, tracking_campaign text, tracking_term text, accepted counter, adjusted_accepted counter, rejected counter, adjusted_rejected counter, error counter, impressions_positive counter, adjusted_impressions_positive counter, impressions_negative counter, adjusted_impressions_negative counter, revenue counter, adjusted_revenue counter, reversals_rejected counter, reversals_revenue counter, PRIMARY KEY ((d_tally), site_id, d_date, is_new_member, device, tracking_medium, tracking_source, tracking_campaign, tracking_term) );

Answer 1

I raised this bug here: here

This turned out to be due to the tabs in the schema. CQLSH was trying to autocomplete each time it came to a tab.

Answer 2

I had this same issue on several computers and appears it's a bug in the cqlsh> interactive shell. If you execute the script from your terminal it will immediately execute:

> cqlsh -f your_cql_script.cql <hostname>

This runs immediately no matter what size tables and will save you LOTS of time.