diff --git a/swh/storage/cassandra/schema.py b/swh/storage/cassandra/schema.py
--- a/swh/storage/cassandra/schema.py
+++ b/swh/storage/cassandra/schema.py
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
-# Copyright (C) 2019-2020  The Software Heritage developers
+# Copyright (C) 2019-2021  The Software Heritage developers
 # See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
 # License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
 
 
-CREATE_TABLES_QUERIES = """
+CREATE_TABLES_QUERIES = [
+    """
 CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION ascii_bins_count_sfunc (
     state tuple<int, map<ascii, int>>, -- (nb_none, map<target_type, nb>)
     bin_name ascii
@@ -28,36 +29,31 @@
     }
     return state;
 $$
-;
-
-
+;""",
+    """
 CREATE OR REPLACE AGGREGATE ascii_bins_count ( ascii )
 SFUNC ascii_bins_count_sfunc
 STYPE tuple<int, map<ascii, int>>
 INITCOND (0, {})
-;
-
-
+;""",
+    """
 CREATE TYPE IF NOT EXISTS microtimestamp (
     seconds             bigint,
     microseconds        int
-);
-
-
+);""",
+    """
 CREATE TYPE IF NOT EXISTS microtimestamp_with_timezone (
     timestamp           frozen<microtimestamp>,
     offset              smallint,
     negative_utc        boolean
-);
-
-
+);""",
+    """
 CREATE TYPE IF NOT EXISTS person (
     fullname    blob,
     name        blob,
     email       blob
-);
-
-
+);""",
+    """
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS content (
     sha1          blob,
     sha1_git      blob,
@@ -68,9 +64,8 @@
         -- creation time, i.e. time of (first) injection into the storage
     status        ascii,
     PRIMARY KEY ((sha1, sha1_git, sha256, blake2s256))
-);
-
-
+);""",
+    """
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS skipped_content (
     sha1          blob,
     sha1_git      blob,
@@ -83,9 +78,8 @@
     reason        text,
     origin        text,
     PRIMARY KEY ((sha1, sha1_git, sha256, blake2s256))
-);
-
-
+);""",
+    """
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS revision (
     id                              blob PRIMARY KEY,
     date                            microtimestamp_with_timezone,
@@ -101,18 +95,16 @@
         -- extra metadata as JSON(tarball checksums, etc...)
     extra_headers                   frozen<list <list<blob>> >
         -- extra commit information as (tuple(key, value), ...)
-);
-
-
+);""",
+    """
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS revision_parent (
     id                     blob,
     parent_rank                     int,
         -- parent position in merge commits, 0-based
     parent_id                       blob,
     PRIMARY KEY ((id), parent_rank)
-);
-
-
+);""",
+    """
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS release
 (
     id                              blob PRIMARY KEY,
@@ -124,14 +116,12 @@
     author                          person,
     synthetic                       boolean,
         -- true iff release has been created by Software Heritage
-);
-
-
+);""",
+    """
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS directory (
     id              blob PRIMARY KEY,
-);
-
-
+);""",
+    """
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS directory_entry (
     directory_id    blob,
     name            blob,  -- path name, relative to containing dir
@@ -139,14 +129,12 @@
     perms           int,   -- unix-like permissions
     type            ascii, -- target type
     PRIMARY KEY ((directory_id), name)
-);
-
-
+);""",
+    """
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS snapshot (
     id              blob PRIMARY KEY,
-);
-
-
+);""",
+    """
 -- For a given snapshot_id, branches are sorted by their name,
 -- allowing easy pagination.
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS snapshot_branch (
@@ -155,18 +143,16 @@
     target_type     ascii,
     target          blob,
     PRIMARY KEY ((snapshot_id), name)
-);
-
-
+);""",
+    """
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS origin_visit (
     origin          text,
     visit           bigint,
     date            timestamp,
     type            text,
     PRIMARY KEY ((origin), visit)
-);
-
-
+);""",
+    """
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS origin_visit_status (
     origin          text,
     visit           bigint,
@@ -175,9 +161,8 @@
     metadata        text,
     snapshot        blob,
     PRIMARY KEY ((origin), visit, date)
-);
-
-
+);""",
+    """
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS origin (
     sha1            blob PRIMARY KEY,
     url             text,
@@ -185,25 +170,22 @@
         -- We need integer visit ids for compatibility with the pgsql
         -- storage, so we're using lightweight transactions with this trick:
         -- https://stackoverflow.com/a/29391877/539465
-);
-
-
+);""",
+    """
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS metadata_authority (
     url             text,
     type            ascii,
     metadata        text,
     PRIMARY KEY ((url), type)
-);
-
-
+);""",
+    """
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS metadata_fetcher (
     name            ascii,
     version         ascii,
     metadata        text,
     PRIMARY KEY ((name), version)
-);
-
-
+);""",
+    """
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS raw_extrinsic_metadata (
     type            text,
     target          text,
@@ -230,18 +212,15 @@
 
     PRIMARY KEY ((target), authority_type, authority_url, discovery_date,
                            fetcher_name, fetcher_version)
-);
-
-
+);""",
+    """
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS object_count (
     partition_key   smallint,  -- Constant, must always be 0
     object_type     ascii,
     count           counter,
     PRIMARY KEY ((partition_key), object_type)
-);
-""".split(
-    "\n\n\n"
-)
+);""",
+]
 
 CONTENT_INDEX_TEMPLATE = """
 -- Secondary table, used for looking up "content" from a single hash
@@ -258,13 +237,24 @@
 );
 """
 
-TABLES = (
-    "skipped_content content revision revision_parent release "
-    "directory directory_entry snapshot snapshot_branch "
-    "origin_visit origin raw_extrinsic_metadata object_count "
-    "origin_visit_status metadata_authority "
-    "metadata_fetcher"
-).split()
+TABLES = [
+    "skipped_content",
+    "content",
+    "revision",
+    "revision_parent",
+    "release",
+    "directory",
+    "directory_entry",
+    "snapshot",
+    "snapshot_branch",
+    "origin_visit",
+    "origin",
+    "raw_extrinsic_metadata",
+    "object_count",
+    "origin_visit_status",
+    "metadata_authority",
+    "metadata_fetcher",
+]
 
 HASH_ALGORITHMS = ["sha1", "sha1_git", "sha256", "blake2s256"]