The az storage entity command is a part of the Microsoft Azure Command-Line Interface (azure-cli or az). It allows users to manage Azure Table storage entities. This command provides functionalities to insert, delete, update, list, and retrieve entities from a table.

Use case 1: Insert an entity into a table

Code:

az storage entity insert --entity space_separated_key_value_pairs --table-name table_name --account-name storage_account_name --account-key storage_account_key

Motivation: This use case is useful when you want to add a new entity to an existing Azure Table.

Explanation:

• --entity: A space-separated key-value pairs representing the entity data. The keys and values must be separated by ‘=’. For example, “PartitionKey=value1 RowKey=value2 Property1=value3”.
• --table-name: The name of the table where the entity will be inserted.
• --account-name: The name of the storage account where the table is located.
• --account-key: The access key for the storage account.

Example Output:

{
    "PartitionKey": "value1",
    "RowKey": "value2",
    "Property1": "value3"
}

Use case 2: Delete an existing entity from a table

Code:

az storage entity delete --partition-key partition_key --row-key row_key --table-name table_name --account-name storage_account_name --account-key storage_account_key

Motivation: This use case is useful when you need to remove a specific entity from an Azure Table.

Explanation:

• --partition-key: The partition key of the entity to be deleted.
• --row-key: The row key of the entity to be deleted.
• --table-name: The name of the table where the entity exists.
• --account-name: The name of the storage account where the table is located.
• --account-key: The access key for the storage account.

Example Output:

Deleted entity with PartitionKey: value1, RowKey: value2 from table: table_name

Use case 3: Update an existing entity by merging its properties

Code:

az storage entity merge --entity space_separated_key_value_pairs --table-name table_name --account-name storage_account_name --account-key storage_account_key

Motivation: This use case is useful when you want to update specific properties of an existing entity without modifying the rest.

Explanation:

• --entity: A space-separated key-value pairs representing the entity data. The keys and values must be separated by ‘=’. For example, “PartitionKey=value1 RowKey=value2 Property1=new_value”.
• --table-name: The name of the table where the entity exists.
• --account-name: The name of the storage account where the table is located.
• --account-key: The access key for the storage account.

Example Output:

{
    "PartitionKey": "value1",
    "RowKey": "value2",
    "Property1": "new_value"
}

Use case 4: List entities which satisfy a query

Code:

az storage entity query --filter query_filter --table-name table_name --account-name storage_account_name --account-key storage_account_key

Motivation: This use case is useful when you want to retrieve a list of entities from an Azure Table that satisfy a specific query filter.

Explanation:

• --filter: The query filter to apply to the entities. This can be any valid Azure Table query filter expression.
• --table-name: The name of the table from which to retrieve the entities.
• --account-name: The name of the storage account where the table is located.
• --account-key: The access key for the storage account.

Example Output:

[
    {
        "PartitionKey": "value1",
        "RowKey": "value2",
        "Property1": "value3"
    },
    {
        "PartitionKey": "value4",
        "RowKey": "value5",
        "Property1": "value6"
    }
]

Use case 5: Get an entity from the specified table

Code:

az storage entity show --partition-key partition_key --row-key row_key --table-name table_name --account-name storage_account_name --account-key storage_account_key

Motivation: This use case is useful when you want to retrieve a specific entity from an Azure Table based on the partition key and row key.

Explanation:

• --partition-key: The partition key of the entity to retrieve.
• --row-key: The row key of the entity to retrieve.
• --table-name: The name of the table from which to retrieve the entity.
• --account-name: The name of the storage account where the table is located.
• --account-key: The access key for the storage account.

Example Output:

{
    "PartitionKey": "value1",
    "RowKey": "value2",
    "Property1": "value3"
}

Conclusion:

The az storage entity command provides a versatile set of functionalities for managing Azure Table storage entities. With this command, you can easily insert, delete, update, list, and retrieve entities from an Azure Table. The provided examples demonstrate how to use each use case effectively to perform various operations on Azure Table entities.