Azure Documentation

1. Create an Azure Table and Insert Data

This tutorial guides you through the process of creating a new Azure Table within your storage account and inserting entities (rows) into it. We'll cover using the Azure Portal and programmatically with the Azure SDK for .NET.

• Prerequisites: An Azure account, a storage account.
• Tools: Azure Portal, Visual Studio (for .NET SDK).

Steps:

1. Navigate to your Azure Storage account in the Azure Portal.
2. Select "Tables" under the "Tables" section.
3. Click "+ Table" to create a new table.
4. Choose a name for your table (e.g., ProductInventory).
5. To insert data programmatically, follow the .NET SDK example provided.

Code Example (Conceptual .NET):

using Azure.Data.Tables;

// ... connection string setup ...
var client = new TableClient(connectionString, tableName);
client.CreateIfNotExists();

var product = new
{
    PartitionKey = "Electronics",
    RowKey = "ABC12345",
    Name = "Laptop",
    Price = 1200.50,
    InStock = true
};

client.AddEntity(product);
            

View detailed tutorial steps for creating and inserting data

2. Querying Data in Azure Tables

Learn how to retrieve specific data from your Azure Tables using various query techniques. This includes filtering by partition and row key, using OData filters, and projecting properties.

• Key Concepts: PartitionKey, RowKey, OData filters, LINQ for Azure SDK.

Query Examples:

• Get a single entity by PartitionKey and RowKey.
• Query all entities within a PartitionKey.
• Filter entities based on property values (e.g., Price gt 1000).
• Select specific properties to reduce data transfer.

Explore advanced querying techniques

3. Updating and Deleting Entities

Understand how to modify existing entities or remove them entirely from your Azure Tables. This section covers merge, update, and delete operations.

• Operations: UpsertEntity (update or insert), DeleteEntity.

Considerations:

• Concurrency control using ETags.
• Batch operations for efficiency.

Learn about managing entities

4. Using Azure Table Storage with REST API

This tutorial demonstrates how to interact with Azure Table Storage directly using its REST API, providing flexibility for languages and platforms not supported by the SDKs.

• Endpoints: Service, Table, Entity level.
• Authentication: Shared Key Lite, Shared Access Signatures (SAS).

Accessing Table Storage via REST

5. Best Practices for Azure Table Storage Performance

Optimize your Azure Table Storage implementation with these best practices, focusing on data modeling, partitioning strategies, and query optimization for maximum performance and cost-effectiveness.

• Key Strategies: Partitioning, indexing, query patterns.

Read performance optimization guide