Perform Azure Table storage operations with Azure PowerShell

Azure Table storage is a NoSQL datastore that you can use to store and query huge sets of structured, non-relational data. The main components of the service are tables, entities, and properties. A table is a collection of entities. An entity is a set of properties. Each entity can have up to 252 properties, which are all name-value pairs. This article assumes that you are already familiar with the Azure Table Storage Service concepts. For detailed information, see Understanding the Table Service Data Model and Get started with Azure Table storage using .NET.

This how-to article covers common Azure Table storage operations. You learn how to:

This how-to article shows you how to create a new storage account in a new resource group so you can easily remove it when you're done. You can also use an existing storage account.

The examples require Az PowerShell modules Az.Storage (1.1.0 or greater) and Az.Resources (1.2.0 or greater). In a PowerShell window, run Get-Module -ListAvailable Az* to find the version. If nothing is displayed, or you need to upgrade, see Install Azure PowerShell module.

After Azure PowerShell is installed or updated, you must install module AzTable, which has the commands for managing the entities. To install this module, run PowerShell as an administrator and use the Install-Module command.

Install-Module AzTable

The AzTable PowerShell module supports authorization with the account access key via Shared Key authorization. The examples in this article show how to authorize table data operations via Shared Key.

Azure Table Storage supports authorization with Microsoft Entra ID. However, the AzTable PowerShell module does not natively support authorization with Microsoft Entra ID. Using Microsoft Entra ID with the AzTable module requires that you call methods in the .NET client library from PowerShell.

To get started, sign in to your Azure subscription with the Add-AzAccount command and follow the on-screen directions.

Add-AzAccount -Environment AzureChinaCloud

If you don't know which location you want to use, you can list the available locations. After the list is displayed, find the one you want to use. These examples use chinaeast. Store this value in the variable location for future use.

Get-AzLocation | select Location
$location = "chinaeast"

Create a resource group with the New-AzResourceGroup command.

An Azure resource group is a logical container into which Azure resources are deployed and managed. Store the resource group name in a variable for future use. In this example, a resource group named pshtablesrg is created in the chinaeast region.

$resourceGroup = "pshtablesrg"
New-AzResourceGroup -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup -Location $location

Create a standard general-purpose storage account with locally redundant storage (LRS) using New-AzStorageAccount. Be sure to specify a unique storage account name. Next, get the context that represents the storage account. When acting on a storage account, you can reference the context instead of repeatedly providing your credentials.

$storageAccountName = "pshtablestorage"
$storageAccount = New-AzStorageAccount -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup `
  -Name $storageAccountName `
  -Location $location `
  -SkuName Standard_LRS `
  -Kind Storage

$ctx = $storageAccount.Context

To create a table, use the New-AzStorageTable cmdlet. In this example, the table is called pshtesttable.

$tableName = "pshtesttable"
New-AzStorageTable -Name $tableName -Context $ctx

Retrieve a list of tables in the storage account using Get-AzStorageTable.

Get-AzStorageTable -Context $ctx | select Name

To perform operations on a table, you need a reference to the specific table. Get a reference using Get-AzStorageTable.

$storageTable = Get-AzStorageTable -Name $tableName -Context $ctx

To perform operations on a table using AzTable, return a reference to the CloudTable property of a specific table. The CloudTable property exposes the .NET methods available for managing table data from PowerShell.

$cloudTable = $storageTable.CloudTable

Now that you have a table, let's look at how to manage entities, or rows, in the table.

Entities can have up to 255 properties, including three system properties: PartitionKey, RowKey, and Timestamp. You're responsible for inserting and updating the values of PartitionKey and RowKey. The server manages the value of Timestamp, which can't be modified. Together the PartitionKey and RowKey uniquely identify every entity within a table.

• PartitionKey: Determines the partition that the entity is stored in.
• RowKey: Uniquely identifies the entity within the partition.

You may define up to 252 custom properties for an entity.

Add entities to a table using Add-AzTableRow. These examples use partition keys with values partition1 and partition2, and row keys equal to state abbreviations. The properties in each entity are username and userid.

$partitionKey1 = "partition1"
$partitionKey2 = "partition2"

# add four rows 
Add-AzTableRow `
    -table $cloudTable `
    -partitionKey $partitionKey1 `
    -rowKey ("CA") -property @{"username"="Chris";"userid"=1}

Add-AzTableRow `
    -table $cloudTable `
    -partitionKey $partitionKey2 `
    -rowKey ("NM") -property @{"username"="Jessie";"userid"=2}

Add-AzTableRow `
    -table $cloudTable `
    -partitionKey $partitionKey1 `
    -rowKey ("WA") -property @{"username"="Christine";"userid"=3}

Add-AzTableRow `
    -table $cloudTable `
    -partitionKey $partitionKey2 `
    -rowKey ("TX") -property @{"username"="Steven";"userid"=4}

You can query the entities in a table by using the Get-AzTableRow command.

Get-AzTableRow -table $cloudTable | ft

This command yields results similar to the following table:

$totalEntities=(Get-AzTableRow -table $cloudTable | measure).Count
Echo $totalEntities

This command results in the numeric count of entities similar to below:

4

Get-AzTableRow -table $cloudTable -partitionKey $partitionKey1 | ft

The results look similar to the following table:

Get-AzTableRow -table $cloudTable `
    -columnName "username" `
    -value "Chris" `
    -operator Equal

This query retrieves one record.

Get-AzTableRow `
    -table $cloudTable `
    -customFilter "(userid eq 1)"

This query retrieves one record.

There are three steps for updating entities. First, retrieve the entity to change. Second, make the change. Third, commit the change using Update-AzTableRow.

Update the entity with username = 'Jessie' to have username = 'Jessie2'. This example also shows another way to create a custom filter using .NET types.

# Create a filter and get the entity to be updated.
[string]$filter = `
    [Microsoft.Azure.Cosmos.Table.TableQuery]::GenerateFilterCondition("username",`
    [Microsoft.Azure.Cosmos.Table.QueryComparisons]::Equal,"Jessie")
$user = Get-AzTableRow `
    -table $cloudTable `
    -customFilter $filter

# Change the entity.
$user.username = "Jessie2"

# To commit the change, pipe the updated record into the update cmdlet.
$user | Update-AzTableRow -table $cloudTable

# To see the new record, query the table.
Get-AzTableRow -table $cloudTable `
    -customFilter "(username eq 'Jessie2')"

The results show the Jessie2 record.

You can delete one entity or all entities in the table.

To delete a single entity, get a reference to that entity and pipe it into Remove-AzTableRow.

# Set filter.
[string]$filter = `
  [Microsoft.Azure.Cosmos.Table.TableQuery]::GenerateFilterCondition("username",`
  [Microsoft.Azure.Cosmos.Table.QueryComparisons]::Equal,"Jessie2")

# Retrieve entity to be deleted, then pipe it into the remove cmdlet.
$userToDelete = Get-AzTableRow `
    -table $cloudTable `
    -customFilter $filter
$userToDelete | Remove-AzTableRow -table $cloudTable

# Retrieve entities from table and see that Jessie2 has been deleted.
Get-AzTableRow -table $cloudTable | ft

To delete all entities in the table, you retrieve them and pipe the results into the remove cmdlet.

# Get all rows and pipe the result into the remove cmdlet.
Get-AzTableRow `
    -table $cloudTable | Remove-AzTableRow -table $cloudTable 

# List entities in the table (there won't be any).
Get-AzTableRow -table $cloudTable | ft

To delete a table, use Remove-AzStorageTable. This cmdlet removes the table, including all of its data.

Remove-AzStorageTable -Name $tableName -Context $ctx

# Retrieve the list of tables to verify the table has been removed.
Get-AzStorageTable -Context $Ctx | select Name

If you created a new resource group and storage account at the beginning of this how-to, you can remove all of the assets you have created in this exercise by removing the resource group. This command deletes all resources contained within the group as well as the resource group itself.

Remove-AzResourceGroup -Name $resourceGroup

In this how-to article, you learned about common Azure Table storage operations with PowerShell, including how to:

For more information, see the following articles

• Storage PowerShell cmdlets

• Working with Azure Tables from PowerShell - AzureRmStorageTable/AzTable PS Module v2.0

• Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer is a free, standalone app from Microsoft that enables you to work visually with Azure Storage data on Windows, macOS, and Linux.