public ModifyableTableDescriptor setColumnFamily(final ColumnFamilyDescriptor family) {
      if (family.getName() == null || family.getName().length <= 0) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Family name cannot be null or empty");
      }
      int flength = family.getName() == null ? 0 : family.getName().length;
      if (flength > Byte.MAX_VALUE) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException(
          "The length of family name is bigger than " + Byte.MAX_VALUE);
      }
      if (hasColumnFamily(family.getName())) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException(
          "Family '" + family.getNameAsString() + "' already exists so cannot be added");
      }
      return putColumnFamily(family);
    }
Adds a column family. For the updating purpose please use
{@link #modifyColumnFamily(ColumnFamilyDescriptor)} instead.
@param family to add.
@return the modifyable TD
hbase-client/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/client/TableDescriptorBuilder.java