Other NoSQL databases
Azure Cosmos DB allows us to choose between five different APIs when programming against Cosmos DB. All APIs can be used using multiple programming languages. The five APIs are the following:
- SQL
- MongoDB
- Gremlin
- Cassandra
- Table
The preferred API to use is the SQL API. This allows a programmer to use SQL queries to query the database. This leverages the power of the SQL language and the SQL experience that a lot of developers have. We will see some examples of using SQL in Cosmos DB in Chapter 6, Provision and Implement an Azure Cosmos DB Instance.
The other four APIs all have the purpose of making migrations from on-premises NoSQL implementations to Azure Cosmos DB easier. We already mentioned the MongoDB API and the Table API. Use the Table API when you have existing code that works against a MongoDB document database. Use the Table API when you are migrating an Azure tables database to Cosmos DB.
Gremlin
The Gremlin API...
