Microsoft Docs – Azure Databases

Getting Started with Azure Databases v1.0

Azure offers fully managed relational, NoSQL, and in‑memory databases that scale on demand. This guide walks you through creating, connecting, and querying an Azure SQL Database.

Prerequisites

  • Azure subscription (free trial works)
  • Azure CLI or Azure Portal access
  • SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) or Azure Data Studio

Create an Azure SQL Database

Use the Azure portal or Azure CLI to provision a new SQL database.

az group create --name MyResourceGroup --location eastus
az sql server create --name myazuresqlserver --resource-group MyResourceGroup --location eastus --admin-user adminuser --admin-password My$ecretP@ss
az sql db create --resource-group MyResourceGroup --server myazuresqlserver --name MySampleDB --service-objective S0

After creation, note the server name (myazuresqlserver.database.windows.net) for connection strings.

Connect to the Database

In SSMS, use the following connection details:

Server: myazuresqlserver.database.windows.net
Database: MySampleDB
Authentication: SQL Authentication
Login: adminuser
Password: My$ecretP@ss

Alternatively, use .NET or Python code samples below.

.NET (C#) example

using System;
using System.Data.SqlClient;

var connectionString = "Server=tcp:myazuresqlserver.database.windows.net,1433;Initial Catalog=MySampleDB;Persist Security Info=False;User ID=adminuser;Password=My$ecretP@ss;MultipleActiveResultSets=False;Encrypt=True;TrustServerCertificate=False;Connection Timeout=30;";

using var conn = new SqlConnection(connectionString);
conn.Open();
Console.WriteLine("Connected successfully!");

Python example

import pyodbc

conn_str = (
    "Driver={ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server};"
    "Server=tcp:myazuresqlserver.database.windows.net,1433;"
    "Database=MySampleDB;"
    "UID=adminuser;"
    "PWD=My$ecretP@ss;"
    "Encrypt=yes;"
    "TrustServerCertificate=no;"
    "Connection Timeout=30;"
)

with pyodbc.connect(conn_str) as conn:
    with conn.cursor() as cursor:
        cursor.execute("SELECT @@VERSION")
        row = cursor.fetchone()
        print(row[0])

Run Queries

Once connected, you can execute standard T‑SQL statements. Below is a simple script to create a table, insert data, and query it.

CREATE TABLE Employees (
    Id INT IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY,
    Name NVARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
    Position NVARCHAR(50),
    HireDate DATE
);

INSERT INTO Employees (Name, Position, HireDate) VALUES
('Alice Johnson', 'Software Engineer', '2022-04-01'),
('Bob Smith', 'Product Manager', '2021-09-15');

SELECT * FROM Employees ORDER BY HireDate DESC;

Next Steps