Azure Table Storage is a NoSQL storage solution that makes use of tables containing key/value data items. Each item is represented by a row that contains columns for the data fields that need to be stored.
An Azure Table enables you to store semi-structured data.
All rows in a table must have a unique key composed of a partition-key and a row-key, and when you modify data in a table, a timestamp column records the date and time the modification was made
In Azure Tables the columns in each row can vary.
Azure Table Storage tables have no concept of foreign keys, relationships, stored procedures, views, or other objects you might find in a relational database.
Data in Azure Table storage is usually denormalized, with each row holding the entire data for a logical entity.
To help ensure fast access, Azure Table Storage splits a table into partitions.
Partitioning is a mechanism for grouping related rows, based on a common property (or partition-key). Rows that share the same partition key will be stored together. Partitioning not only helps to organize data, it can also improve scalability and performance.
The key in an Azure Table Storage table comprises two elements:
- the partition key that identifies the partition containing the row
- the row key that is unique to each row in the same partition
Items in the same partition are stored in row key order.
If an application adds a new row to a table, Azure ensures that the row is placed in the correct position in the table. This scheme enables an application to quickly perform point queries that identify a single row, and range queries that fetch a contiguous block of rows in a partition.