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Columns -- The Building Blocks

What is a Column?

A column is like a single cell in a spreadsheet, but smarter. Each column has three parts:

  1. Name -- The column header (like "Math Grade")
  2. Value -- The actual data (like "A+" or 95)
  3. Timestamp -- When this data was written (like a date stamp)

Why Timestamps?

Imagine you and your friend both try to update Alice's math grade at the same time. You write "A+" and your friend writes "A-". Which one wins?

The timestamp solves this! Whichever write happened most recently wins. It's like a "last edited" date on a Google Doc.

from pycoldb import Column

# A grade recorded at time 1000
grade_v1 = Column(name="math", value="B", timestamp=1000)

# Updated later at time 2000
grade_v2 = Column(name="math", value="A+", timestamp=2000)

# The column with timestamp 2000 is the most recent

What Can Go in a Column?

Columns can hold different types of values: - Strings: "A+", "present", "blue" - Numbers: 95, 3.14 - Booleans: True, False - None: For "no value" / "unknown"