Some CQL 3 examples you can run from the Driver

Show all the Keyspaces:

SELECT * FROM system.schema_keyspaces

Create a Keyspace with replication factor 1:

CREATE KEYSPACE test WITH REPLICATION = { 'class': 'SimpleStrategy', 'replication_factor': 1 }

Create a Sample table:

CREATE TABLE mytable (thekey text,col1 text,col2 text,PRIMARY KEY (thekey, col1))

Create a more complex table:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS test (userid int, firstname text, lastname text, tele set<text>, emails set<text>, skills list<text>, todos map<timestamp,text>, PRIMARY KEY (userid) )

Insert simple:

INSERT INTO mytable (thekey, col1, col2) VALUES ('first', 'Carles Mateo', 'http://blog.carlesmateo.com')

Insert more complex:

INSERT INTO
            test
            (userid, firstname, lastname, tele, emails, skills, todos)
     VALUES
            (1, 'David', 'Lebrón',
            {'770-111-1111','770-222-2222'},
            {'myemail@carlesmateo.com','yxie2@kennesaw.edu'},
            ['carpenter','instructor'],
            {'2014-04-14':'project Cassandra Universal Driver'})

Select:

SELECT * FROM mytable

Administrative commands to use from cqlsh command line tool

DESCRIBE KEYSPACE Keyspace;

USE Keyspace;

To see the Tables in a KeySpace (after USE Keyspace):

DESCRIBE TABLES;