title: Efficient way to store a JSON string in a Cassandra column?
body: <p>Cassandra newbie question. I'm collecting some data from a social networking site using REST calls. So I end up with the data coming back in JSON format. </p>
  
  <p>The JSON is only one of the columns in my table. I'm trying to figure out what the "best practice" is for storing the JSON string. </p>
  
  <p>First I thought of using the <strong>map</strong> type, but the JSON contains a mix of strings, numerical types, etc. It doesn't seem like I can declare wildcard types for the map key/value. The JSON string can be quite large, probably over 10KB in size. I could potentially store it as a string, but it seems like that would be inefficient. I would assume this is a common task, so I'm sure there are some general guidelines for how to do this.</p>
  
  <p>I know Cassandra has native support for JSON, but from what I understand, that's mostly used when the entire JSON map matches 1-1 with the database schema. That's not the case for me. The schema has a bunch of columns and the JSON string is just a sort of "payload". Is it better to store the JSON string as a <strong>blob</strong> or as <strong>text</strong>? BTW, the Cassandra version is 2.1.5.</p>
  
  <p>Any hints appreciated. Thanks in advance. </p>