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Sort key

The part of a key that orders items within a partition, so a range of them comes back in order in one read.

Taught in Chapter 20: Data Modeling.

More from the same chapter

• Access pattern: One way the application reads or writes data, with how often it happens. Data is laid out to make the common ones cheap.
• Denormalisation: Copying data next to where it's read, so a read skips a lookup. Every copy is another write when the fact changes.
• Embedding: Storing child items inside their parent, so one read returns both. Safe only for a list that can't grow without limit.
• Normalisation: Storing each fact in one place and pointing to it by key, so a change is one write and joins rebuild the views.
• Partition key: The part of a key that decides which partition holds an item. Items with the same partition key are read together.