Azure Documentation

Overview of Azure Storage Tables

Azure Storage Tables offers a NoSQL key-value store that can store large amounts of structured, non-relational data. It's a cost-effective and scalable solution for a wide range of applications, from web apps to IoT data processing.

What is Azure Storage Tables?

Azure Storage Tables is a service that stores NoSQL data. The data is stored in tables, and each table contains entities. Entities are collections of properties, similar to rows in a database. Properties are name-value pairs. Tables in Azure Storage Tables are schemaless. This means that a table can contain entities that have different sets of properties. The properties are typed. Each property has a name and a type.

Key Features

  • Scalability: Designed to handle massive datasets and high throughput.
  • Cost-Effectiveness: Offers a competitive pricing model, especially for large volumes of data.
  • Flexibility: Schemaless design allows for easy adaptation to changing data requirements.
  • Performance: Optimized for fast reads and writes of structured NoSQL data.
  • Global Distribution: Data can be replicated globally for high availability and disaster recovery.

When to Use Azure Storage Tables

Azure Storage Tables is ideal for scenarios such as:

  • Storing user data for web applications.
  • Managing device data from IoT solutions.
  • Holding configuration data or metadata.
  • Serving semi-structured data that doesn't fit a relational model.

Core Concepts

Understanding these core concepts is crucial:

  • Table: A collection of entities. Tables are schemaless.
  • Entity: A set of properties. An entity is analogous to a row in a database.
  • Property: A name-value pair. An entity can have up to 252 properties.
  • Partition Key: Used for partitioning data within a table. Entities with the same partition key are stored together.
  • Row Key: Uniquely identifies an entity within a partition.

Example: Creating a Table

// Using Azure SDK for Node.js
const { TableClient } = require("@azure/data-tables");
const connectionString = "YOUR_AZURE_STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING";
const client = TableClient.fromConnectionString(connectionString, "MyTable");

async function createTable() {
    await client.createTable();
    console.log("Table 'MyTable' created.");
}
createTable().catch(console.error);

Get Started

To begin working with Azure Storage Tables, you'll need an Azure Storage account. You can then use the Azure SDKs for various languages or interact with the service via REST APIs.

Explore the following resources to dive deeper: