Get a collection (Python)

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

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.

Parameters

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

Method signature
get_collection(
  name: str,
  *,
  document_type: type[Any],
  keyspace: str,
  spawn_api_options: APIOptions,
) -> Collection

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

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 if you specified a working keyspace when you created the Database object. The keyspace that contains the collection.

Default: The working keyspace set when you created the Database object, if one was provided.

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.

Examples

The following examples demonstrate how to get a collection.

Get a collection

The following example uses untyped documents or rows, but you can define a client-side type for your collection to help statically catch errors. For examples, see Typing support.

from astrapy import DataAPIClient
from astrapy.authentication import UsernamePasswordTokenProvider
from astrapy.constants import Environment

# Get a database
client = DataAPIClient(environment=Environment.HCD)
database = client.get_database(
    "API_ENDPOINT",
    token=UsernamePasswordTokenProvider("USERNAME", "PASSWORD"),
    keyspace="KEYSPACE_NAME",
)

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

Client reference

For more information, see the client reference.

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