# Tables A table is a mutable, partitioned collection that models change over time. In contrast with a stream, which represents a historical sequence of events, a table represents what is true as of “now”. For example, you might use a table to model the locations where someone has lived as a stream: first Miami, then New York, then London, and so forth. Tables work by leveraging the keys of each row. If a sequence of rows shares a key, the last row for a given key represents the most up-to-date information for that key’s identity. A background process periodically runs and deletes all but the newest rows for each key.