Here are some points to keep in mind when working with Cassandra.

• Have to use ordered partitioner if you want row keys in sorted order. Be aware that if the row keys are not distributed properly it would create hot spots since most of rows will be concentrated to several nodes.

• Columns are sorted using definitions given when creating the column family but row keys are not sorted according to them.

• If you see only hex values in Cassandra-cli for column keys and values in the shown results use ‘as’ and ‘assume’ to get the human readable values of the column keys and values. See this thread.
  
  
  Source: http://chamibuddhika.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/some-cassandra-gotchas/