Azure Table Storage

Azure Table Storage is a NoSQL key-value store that you can use to store large amounts of structured, non-relational data. It's a cost-effective storage solution for applications that need a flexible schema and rapid development.

What is Table Storage?

Table Storage stores data as collections of entities. An entity is a set of properties, similar to a row in a database. Each entity has a PartitionKey and a RowKey, which together uniquely identify the entity. These keys are indexed, allowing for efficient retrieval.

Entities and Properties

An entity can have any number of properties, and different entities within the same table don't need to have the same set of properties. Properties are essentially name-value pairs. The names are strings, and the values can be one of the following data types:

• String
• GUID
• Boolean
• DateTime
• Double
• Single
• Int32
• Int64
• Byte array

PartitionKey and RowKey

The combination of PartitionKey and RowKey serves as the primary key for an entity. This composite key must be unique within a table.

• PartitionKey: Groups entities together. Entities with the same PartitionKey are stored together on the same storage node, which can improve query performance when retrieving multiple entities from the same partition.
• RowKey: Uniquely identifies an entity within a partition.

Common Use Cases

Table Storage is ideal for scenarios such as:

• Storing user data for web applications
• Managing metadata for large objects in Blob Storage
• Holding configuration settings
• Logging application events
• Serving as a backend for IoT devices

Working with Table Storage

You can interact with Table Storage using various methods:

Azure SDKs

Microsoft provides SDKs for popular programming languages like .NET, Java, Python, and Node.js, which simplify operations.

# Example using Azure SDK for Python
from azure.data.tables import TableServiceClient

connection_string = "YOUR_CONNECTION_STRING"
table_name = "MyTable"

table_service_client = TableServiceClient.from_connection_string(connection_string)
table_client = table_service_client.get_table_client(table_name=table_name)

entity = {
    "PartitionKey": "users",
    "RowKey": "user1",
    "email": "user1@example.com",
    "age": 30
}

table_client.upsert_entity(entity)
print("Entity upserted successfully.")

Azure CLI

The Azure Command-Line Interface offers commands to manage tables and entities.

# Example: Creating a table
az storage table create --name MyTable --account-name mystorageaccount --account-key YOUR_ACCOUNT_KEY

# Example: Inserting an entity (using a JSON file)
# entity.json: {"PartitionKey": "products", "RowKey": "prod1", "name": "Laptop", "price": 1200.50}
az storage entity insert --table-name MyTable --account-name mystorageaccount --account-key YOUR_ACCOUNT_KEY --entity @entity.json

REST API

Table Storage also exposes a powerful REST API that you can use to perform operations programmatically.

Performance Considerations

To maximize performance:

• Choose appropriate PartitionKey values that distribute your data evenly.
• Design your RowKey for efficient querying.
• Batch operations where possible using batch transactions.