Accessing Azure Storage Tables

This document details how to access and interact with Azure Storage Tables, a NoSQL key-attribute store for massive amounts of structured, non-relational data. We'll cover various methods, including REST APIs, client libraries, and the Azure portal.

Understanding Table Operations

Azure Storage Tables support a set of operations that allow you to manage your data. These operations can be categorized as follows:

• Table Operations: Creating, deleting, and listing tables.
• Entity Operations: Creating, retrieving, updating, deleting, and querying entities (rows) within a table.

Accessing Tables via REST API

The Azure Storage Tables REST API provides a low-level interface for interacting with your tables. You can send HTTP requests to the Azure Storage endpoint to perform operations.

Key Endpoints:

• GET /Tables: Lists all tables in the storage account.
• POST /Tables: Creates a new table.
• GET /{storageAccountName}/Tables('{tableName}'): Retrieves a specific table.
• DELETE /{storageAccountName}/Tables('{tableName}'): Deletes a specific table.

For detailed information on constructing REST API requests, refer to the Azure Storage Tables REST API documentation.

Using Azure Storage Client Libraries

Azure Storage provides SDKs for various programming languages, offering a more convenient and idiomatic way to access tables. These libraries abstract away the complexities of the REST API.

Example: C# SDK

Here's a C# example demonstrating how to connect to a table and insert an entity:

using Azure.Data.Tables;
using System;

// Replace with your actual connection string and table name
string connectionString = "YOUR_AZURE_STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING";
string tableName = "MyDataTable";

// Create a TableServiceClient using the connection string
TableServiceClient tableServiceClient = new TableServiceClient(connectionString);

// Get a reference to the table. If it doesn't exist, create it.
TableClient tableClient = await tableServiceClient.CreateTableIfNotExistsAsync(tableName);

// Define an entity to insert
var customer = new TableEntity("Contoso", "Walter")
{
    ["Email"] = "Walter@contoso.com",
    ["Phone"] = "555-1234",
    ["IsActive"] = true
};

// Insert the entity
await tableClient.AddEntityAsync(customer);
Console.WriteLine($"Entity added successfully to {tableName}.");
                

Common Operations with Client Libraries:

• Creating Entities: Use methods like AddEntityAsync or UpsertEntityAsync.
• Retrieving Entities: Use GetEntityAsync with partition and row keys, or query operations.
• Updating Entities: Use UpdateEntityAsync or UpsertEntityAsync.
• Deleting Entities: Use DeleteEntityAsync.

You can find comprehensive examples for other languages like Python, Java, and Node.js in the Azure Storage Tables Client Library Tutorials.

Accessing via Azure Portal

The Azure portal provides a graphical interface to manage your storage accounts and their contents, including tables. You can perform basic operations like viewing tables, adding/editing entities, and running queries.

1. Navigate to your Azure Storage Account in the Azure portal.
2. Under "Data storage," select "Tables."
3. Click on the desired table to view its entities.
4. Use the "Add entity" button to create new entities.

Security Considerations

Access to your Azure Storage Tables should be secured. Consider the following:

• Shared Access Signatures (SAS): Granting limited, time-bound access to specific resources.
• Access Control Lists (ACLs): Managing permissions at the table level.
• Azure Active Directory (Azure AD): Using role-based access control for fine-grained permissions.

Next Steps

Now that you know how to access Azure Storage Tables, you can explore more advanced topics such as querying your data efficiently and implementing transactions.

• Querying Azure Storage Tables
• Using Transactions in Azure Storage Tables