HBase utilities : Bytes.add

gistfile1.java

// ---------- Bytes.add() : creating composite keys ---------
// rowkey = int + long
int i = 0;
long timestamp = System.currentTimeMillis();
byte [] rowkey2 = Bytes.add(Bytes.toBytes(i), Bytes.toBytes(timestamp));
System.out.println ("rowkey2 (" + rowkey2.length + ") : " + Arrays.toString(rowkey2));

// add also supports adding 3 byte arrays
// rowkey = int + str + long
byte[] rowkey3 = Bytes.add(Bytes.toBytes(0) , Bytes.toBytes("hello"),  Bytes.toBytes(timestamp)); 
System.out.println ("rowkey3 (" + rowkey3.length + ") : " + Arrays.toString(rowkey3));

/* output:
rowkey2 (12) : [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 50, 8, -101, 99, -41]
rowkey3 (17) : [0, 0, 0, 0, 104, 101, 108, 108, 111, 0, 0, 1, 50, 8, -101, 99, -41]
*/