Amazon Keyspaces (for Apache Cassandra) now supports now(), uuid() functions in SELECT and Duration data type

Amazon Keyspaces (for Apache Cassandra) now supports the now() and uuid() functions in SELECT clauses, expanding their functionality beyond the previously supported WHERE, INSERT, and UPDATE clauses, as well as the Duration data type. These improvements provide greater compatibility with Apache Cassandra, making it easier to work with time-based operations and unique identifiers in your applications.

Amazon Keyspaces (for Apache Cassandra) is a scalable, highly available, and managed Apache Cassandra–compatible database service. Amazon Keyspaces is serverless, so you pay for only the resources that you use and you can build applications that serve thousands of requests per second with virtually unlimited throughput and storage.

With the now() function, you can now generate current timestamps directly in your SELECT statements, making it easier to track when data was retrieved or to perform time-based calculations within your queries. Similarly, the uuid() function allows you to generate unique identifiers within SELECT statements, which is particularly useful for creating reference values or temporary identifiers during data retrieval operations. The new Duration data type represents time elapsed between two timestamps, supporting use cases like tracking task completion times or code execution intervals. This eliminates the need to store time intervals as strings or bytes, removing the burden of manual parsing from your applications.

The now(), uuid(), and Duration data type enhancements are available today in all AWS Commercial and AWS GovCloud (US) Regions where Amazon Keyspaces is available. To learn more, visit the Amazon Keyspaces CQL documentation.