Get a collection

Gets a reference to a collection for use with the Data API clients.

Ready to write code? See the examples for this method to get started. If you are new to the Data API, check out the quickstart.

Result

Python
TypeScript
Java
curl

Returns a Collection object that corresponds to the specified collection name.

This method returns a Collection object even for collections that don’t exist.

Unless you specify the document_type parameter, the collection is typed as Collection[dict].

For more information, see Typing support.

Example response:

Collection(name="COLLECTION_NAME", keyspace="default_keyspace", database.api_endpoint="API_ENDPOINT", api_options=FullAPIOptions(token=StaticTokenProvider("APPLICATION_TOKEN"...), ...))

Returns a Collection<Schema> object that corresponds to the specified collection name.

This method returns a Collection object even for collections that don’t exist.

A Collection is typed as Collection<Schema>, where Schema defaults to SomeDoc (Record<string, any>). Providing the specific Schema type enables stronger typing for collection operations. For more information, see Typing Collections and Tables.

Returns a Collection<T> object that corresponds to the specified collection name.

This method returns a Collection<T> object even for collections that don’t exist.

A Collection is typed as Collection<T>, where T defaults to Document which can be seen as a generic map of String to Object.

Providing the specific T type enables stronger typing for collection operations. (eg: Collecion<MyBean>) For more information see the client reference.

This method has no literal equivalent in HTTP. Instead, you specify the collection in the path, if required.

To get information about collections in a database, see List collection metadata.

Parameters

Python
TypeScript
Java
curl

Use the get_collection method, which belongs to the astrapy.Database class.

Method signature

get_collection(
  name: str,
  *,
  document_type: type[Any],
  keyspace: str,
  embedding_api_key: str | EmbeddingHeadersProvider,
  spawn_api_options: APIOptions,
) -> Collection

Alternatively, use the database["COLLECTION_NAME"] or database.COLLECTION_NAME syntax.

Name Type Summary

Name	Type	Summary
`name`	`str`	The name of the collection.
`document_type`	`type`	Optional. A formal specifier for the type checker. If provided, `document_type` must match the type hint specified in the assignment. For more information, see Typing support. Default: `Collection[dict]`
`keyspace`	`str`	Optional. The keyspace that contains the collection. Default: The working keyspace for the database.
`embedding_api_key`	`str \| EmbeddingHeadersProvider`	Optional. This only applies to collections with a vectorize embedding provider integration. Use this option to provide the API key directly with headers instead of using an API key in the Astra DB KMS. The API key is sent to the Data API for every operation on the collection. It is useful when a vectorize service is configured but no credentials are stored, or when you want to override the stored credentials. For more information, see Auto-generate embeddings with vectorize.
`spawn_api_options`	`APIOptions`	Optional. A complete or partial specification of the APIOptions to override the defaults inherited from the `Database`. Use this to customize the Python client interaction with the collection. For example, you can change the serdes options or default timeouts. If `APIOptions` is passed along with a named parameter such as a timeout, the latter takes precedence over the corresponding `spawn_api_options` setting.

name

str

The name of the collection.

document_type

type

Optional. A formal specifier for the type checker. If provided, document_type must match the type hint specified in the assignment. For more information, see Typing support.

Default: Collection[dict]

keyspace

str

Optional. The keyspace that contains the collection.

Default: The working keyspace for the database.

embedding_api_key

str | EmbeddingHeadersProvider

Optional. This only applies to collections with a vectorize embedding provider integration.

Use this option to provide the API key directly with headers instead of using an API key in the Astra DB KMS.

The API key is sent to the Data API for every operation on the collection. It is useful when a vectorize service is configured but no credentials are stored, or when you want to override the stored credentials. For more information, see Auto-generate embeddings with vectorize.

spawn_api_options

APIOptions

Optional. A complete or partial specification of the APIOptions to override the defaults inherited from the Database. Use this to customize the Python client interaction with the collection. For example, you can change the serdes options or default timeouts. If APIOptions is passed along with a named parameter such as a timeout, the latter takes precedence over the corresponding spawn_api_options setting.

Use the collection method, which belongs to the Db class.

Method signature

collection <Schema extends SomeDoc = SomeDoc>(
  name: string,
  options?: {
    keyspace?: string,
    logging?: DataAPILoggingConfig,
    serdes?: CollectionSerDesConfig,
    embeddingApiKey?: string | EmbeddingHeadersProvider,
    timeoutDefaults?: TimeoutDescriptor,
  }
): Collection<Schema>

Name Type Summary

Name	Type	Summary
`name`	`string`	The name of the collection.
`options`	`CollectionOptions`	Optional. The options for this operation. See Properties of `options` for more details.

name

string

The name of the collection.

options

CollectionOptions

Optional. The options for this operation. See Properties of options for more details.

Properties of `options`
Name	Type	Summary
`embeddingApiKey`	`string`	Optional. This only applies to collections with a vectorize embedding provider integration. Use this option to provide the API key directly with headers instead of using an API key in the Astra DB KMS. The API key is sent to the Data API for every operation on the collection. It is useful when a vectorize service is configured but no credentials are stored, or when you want to override the stored credentials. For more information, see Auto-generate embeddings with vectorize.
`keyspace`	`string`	Optional. The keyspace that contains the collection. Default: The working keyspace for the database.
`logging`	`string`	Optional. The configuration for logging events emitted by the DataAPIClient.
`serdes`	`string`	Optional. The configuration for serialization/deserialization by the DataAPIClient. For more information, see Custom Ser/Des.
`timeoutDefaults`	`TimeoutDescriptor`	Optional. The default timeout(s) to apply to operations performed on this Collection instance. You can specify `requestTimeoutMs`, `generalMethodTimeoutMs`, and `collectionAdminTimeoutMs`. Details about the `timeoutDefaults` parameter The default timeout options for any operation performed on this Collection instance. The `TimeoutDescriptor` object can contain these properties: `requestTimeoutMs` (`number`): The maximum time, in milliseconds, that the client should wait for each underlying HTTP request. Default: 10 seconds. `generalMethodTimeoutMs` (`number`): The maximum time, in milliseconds, that the whole operation, which may involve multiple HTTP requests, can take. Default: 30 seconds. `collectionAdminTimeoutMs` (`number`): The maximum time, in milliseconds, for collection admin operations like creating, dropping, and listing collections. Default: 60 seconds.

Use the getCollection method, which belongs to the com.datastax.astra.client.Database class.

Method signature

Collection<Document> getCollection(String collectionName)

Collection<Document> getCollection(
  String collectionName,
  CollectionOptions options
)

<T> Collection<T> getCollection(
  String collectionName,
  Class<T> documentClass
)

<T> Collection<T> getCollection(
  String collectionName,
  Class<T> documentClass
  CollectionOptions options,
)

Name Type Summary

Name	Type	Summary
`name`	`string`	The name of the collection.
`options`	`CollectionOptions`	Options for the operation, including the keyspace.

name

string

The name of the collection.

options

CollectionOptions

Options for the operation, including the keyspace.

This method has no literal equivalent in HTTP. Instead, you specify the collection in the path, if required.

To get information about collections in a database, see List collection metadata.

Examples

The following examples demonstrate how to get a collection.

Python
TypeScript
Java
curl

from astrapy import DataAPIClient

# Get a database
client = DataAPIClient()
database = client.get_database(
    "API_ENDPOINT",
    token="APPLICATION_TOKEN",
)

# Get a collection
collection = database.get_collection("COLLECTION_NAME")

Typed collections
Untyped collections

You can manually define a client-side type for your collection to help statically catch errors.

import { DataAPIClient } from "@datastax/astra-db-ts";

// Get a database
const client = new DataAPIClient("APPLICATION_TOKEN");
const database = client.db("API_ENDPOINT");

// Define the type for the collection
interface User {
  name: string;
  age?: number;
}

// Get a collection
(async function () {
  const collection = await database.collection<User>("COLLECTION_NAME");
})();

If you don’t pass a type parameter, the collection remains untyped. This is a more flexible but less type-safe option.

import { DataAPIClient } from "@datastax/astra-db-ts";

// Get a database
const client = new DataAPIClient("APPLICATION_TOKEN");
const database = client.db("API_ENDPOINT");

// Get a collection
(async function () {
  const collection = await database.collection("COLLECTION_NAME");
})();

import com.datastax.astra.client.DataAPIClient;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.Collection;
import com.datastax.astra.client.collections.definition.documents.Document;
import com.datastax.astra.client.databases.Database;

public class Example {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    // Get a database
    Database database = new DataAPIClient("APPLICATION_TOKEN").getDatabase("API_ENDPOINT");

    // Get a collection
    Collection<Document> collection = database.getCollection("COLLECTION_NAME");
  }
}

This method has no literal equivalent in HTTP. Instead, you specify the collection in the path, if required.

To get information about collections in a database, see List collection metadata.

Client reference

Python
TypeScript
Java
curl

For more information, see the client reference.

Client reference documentation is not applicable for HTTP.

Get a collection

Result

Parameters

Examples

Client reference

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