Azure Table storage is a service that stores non-relational structured data (also known as structured NoSQL data) in the cloud, providing a key/attribute store with a schemaless design. Because Table storage is schemaless, it’s easy to adapt data as the needs of application evolve. Access to Table storage data is fast and cost-effective for many types of applications, and is typically lower in cost than traditional SQL for similar volumes of data.
Table storage contains the following components:
- Table: A table is a collection of entities. Tables don’t enforce a schema on entities, which means a single table can contain entities that have different sets of properties.
- Entity: An entity is a set of properties, similar to a database row. An entity in Azure Storage can be up to 1MB in size. An entity in Azure Cosmos DB can be up to 2MB in size.
- Properties: A property is a name-value pair. Each entity can include up to 252 properties to store data. Each entity also has three system properties that specify a partition key, a row key, and a timestamp. Entities with the same partition key can be queried more quickly, and inserted/updated in atomic operations. An entity’s row key is its unique identifier within a partition.
Compare Azure Table Storage to: Azure Cosmos DB for Tables
Reference Materials:
- Microsoft Learn: What is Azure Table storage?
- Microsoft Learn: What is Azure Cosmos DB for Table?
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