Deleting Data in Azure Table Storage

Deletion Methods

Deleting a Single Entity

You can delete a single entity from a table by providing its PartitionKey and RowKey. This is the most common and granular way to remove data.

C# Example (using Azure.Data.Tables SDK)


using Azure;
using Azure.Data.Tables;

// Replace with your connection string and table name
string connectionString = "";
string tableName = "MySampleTable";
string partitionKey = "Group1";
string rowKey = "Item1";

TableServiceClient tableServiceClient = new TableServiceClient(connectionString);
TableClient tableClient = tableServiceClient.GetTableClient(tableName);

// Ensure the table exists
tableClient.CreateIfNotExists();

// Delete the entity
Response response = tableClient.DeleteEntity(partitionKey, rowKey);

if (response.Status == 204)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Entity with PartitionKey='{partitionKey}' and RowKey='{rowKey}' deleted successfully.");
}
else
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Failed to delete entity. Status code: {response.Status}");
}

Python Example (using azure-data-tables SDK)


from azure.data.tables import TableServiceClient

# Replace with your connection string and table name
connection_string = ""
table_name = "MySampleTable"
partition_key = "Group1"
row_key = "Item1"

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

# Ensure the table exists
table_client.create_table()

# Delete the entity
try:
    table_client.delete_entity(partition_key, row_key)
    print(f"Entity with PartitionKey='{partition_key}' and RowKey='{row_key}' deleted successfully.")
except Exception as ex:
    print(f"Failed to delete entity: {ex}")

Azure CLI Example


# Log in to Azure if you haven't already
# az login

# Replace with your storage account name, resource group, table name, partition key, and row key
STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME="yourstorageaccountname"
RESOURCE_GROUP="yourresourcegroup"
TABLE_NAME="MySampleTable"
PARTITION_KEY="Group1"
ROW_KEY="Item1"

az storage table entity delete \
    --account-name $STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME \
    --table-name $TABLE_NAME \
    --partition-key $PARTITION_KEY \
    --row-key $ROW_KEY \
    --auth-mode login # Or use --connection-string ""

Deleting Multiple Entities (Batch Delete)

For efficiency, you can delete multiple entities within a single batch operation. This is particularly useful when you need to remove a set of related entities that share the same PartitionKey.

Note: Batch operations in Azure Table Storage are limited to entities within the same partition. You cannot perform a batch operation across different partition keys.

C# (Azure.Data.Tables)
Python (azure-data-tables)

C# Example (Batch Delete)


using Azure;
using Azure.Data.Tables;
using System.Collections.Generic;

// Replace with your connection string and table name
string connectionString = "";
string tableName = "MySampleTable";
string partitionKey = "Group1";

TableServiceClient tableServiceClient = new TableServiceClient(connectionString);
TableClient tableClient = tableServiceClient.GetTableClient(tableName);
tableClient.CreateIfNotExists();

// Prepare entities to delete (only PartitionKey and RowKey are needed for delete)
var entitiesToDelete = new List<TableTransactionAction>
{
    new TableTransactionAction(TableTransactionActionType.Delete, new TableEntity(partitionKey, "Item1")),
    new TableTransactionAction(TableTransactionActionType.Delete, new TableEntity(partitionKey, "Item2")),
    new TableTransactionAction(TableTransactionActionType.Delete, new TableEntity(partitionKey, "Item3"))
};

// Submit the batch
try
{
    Response<IReadOnlyList<Response>> response = tableClient.SubmitTransaction(entitiesToDelete, CancellationToken.None);

    if (response.Value.All(r => r.Status == 204))
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Batch delete operation for PartitionKey='{partitionKey}' completed successfully.");
    }
    else
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Some entities in the batch delete operation may not have been deleted.");
        for (int i = 0; i < response.Value.Count; i++)
        {
            if (response.Value[i].Status != 204)
            {
                Console.WriteLine($"  Entity index {i}: Status {response.Value[i].Status}");
            }
        }
    }
}
catch (RequestFailedException ex)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Batch delete operation failed: {ex.Message}");
}

Python Example (Batch Delete)


from azure.data.tables import TableServiceClient, TableTransactionAction

# Replace with your connection string and table name
connection_string = ""
table_name = "MySampleTable"
partition_key = "Group1"

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

# Prepare entities to delete (only PartitionKey and RowKey are needed for delete)
entities_to_delete = [
    TableTransactionAction("delete", {"PartitionKey": partition_key, "RowKey": "Item1"}),
    TableTransactionAction("delete", {"PartitionKey": partition_key, "RowKey": "Item2"}),
    TableTransactionAction("delete", {"PartitionKey": partition_key, "RowKey": "Item3"})
]

# Submit the batch
try:
    responses = table_client.submit_transaction(entities_to_delete)
    all_deleted = True
    for i, response in enumerate(responses):
        if response.get("status") != 204:
            print(f"Entity at index {i} not deleted. Status: {response.get('status')}")
            all_deleted = False
    if all_deleted:
        print(f"Batch delete operation for PartitionKey='{partition_key}' completed successfully.")
except Exception as ex:
    print(f"Batch delete operation failed: {ex}")

Deleting an Entire Table

If you no longer need a table and all its contents, you can delete the entire table. This operation is irreversible.

C# Example (Delete Table)


using Azure;
using Azure.Data.Tables;

// Replace with your connection string and table name
string connectionString = "";
string tableName = "MyOldTable";

TableServiceClient tableServiceClient = new TableServiceClient(connectionString);

// Delete the table
Response response = tableServiceClient.DeleteTable(tableName);

if (response.Status == 204)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Table '{tableName}' deleted successfully.");
}
else
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Failed to delete table '{tableName}'. Status code: {response.Status}");
}

Python Example (Delete Table)


from azure.data.tables import TableServiceClient

# Replace with your connection string and table name
connection_string = ""
table_name = "MyOldTable"

table_service_client = TableServiceClient.from_connection_string(connection_string)

# Delete the table
try:
    table_client = table_service_client.get_table_client(table_name)
    table_client.delete_table()
    print(f"Table '{table_name}' deleted successfully.")
except Exception as ex:
    print(f"Failed to delete table '{table_name}': {ex}")