Getting Started With Azure Cosmos DB - Table API

In this article, we will walk through Azure Cosmos DB for Table API. Here is the flow of this write-up.

• Concepts 
• Implementation – Creating the Azure Cosmos DB for Table API.
• Implementation – Query the Data.

Concepts

• Azure Cosmos DB is designed to be scalable and performance proof.
• Previously designed schemas for relational databases are pretty familiar to you.
• If you are designing for NoSQL/Key value store, in that case, Azure Table service is the best option to choose.
• The NoSQL data store can enable your solution to scale much faster and that too in lower case.
• Basically, the solution uses a relational database.
• Each row of the table represents an entity, every entity has a pair of keys to uniquely identify the row and the timestamp column used to track when the entity was last updated.
• The best part is that it looks like a table in a relational database with a different key.
• Schema-less nature of the table service means that a property needs to have the same data type on each entity.
• To store complex data types, you must use a serialized format such as JSON or XML.
• As you will see in the demo,  partition key and row key are fundamental to good design. Like every entity stored in the table it must have a unique combination of Partition Key and Row Key.
• Basically, these values are indexed to create a clustered index that enables much faster look ups.
• The table is made up of one or more partitions. Partition Key and Row Key is suitable to optimize your solution.
• The account name, table name, and Partition Key together identify the partition within the same storage service where your table service store the entity.

Implementation – Create the Azure Cosmos DB for table API.

• Open Azure portal and click on + sign at the left top corner of your screen.
  
  
  

• Click on Azure Cosmos DB.
• Fill in the following required details like ID / Name.
• Choose the API (SQL (Document DB), MongoDB, Gremlin (graph), Table(Key-value)).
• Let's say we will take Table (key -value pair).
• Choose subscription and existing resource group or create new as per your requirement.
• Choose location means which data center you want to store the data in.
  
  
  
  
• Click on "Create" button.
• Once it is deployed, go to - Quick Start and create a default table / click on "Create People Table". You can create your own table also.
• Once you click on Create ‘People Table' , your default table is created.
  
  
  
  
• Click on Data Explorer (Preview) tab at the left side, as shown below.
  
  
  

• You will see the Entities, Stored Procedures, Triggers etc, as same as your normal SQL Database.
• Then, click on Entities - Add Entities - Add Table Entities.
• Give Partition Key and Row key and also add one more Property “City” as shown below.
  
  
  

• Click on "Add Entity".
• This will create a record below.
• Likewise, add one more Entity.

Implementation – Create the Azure Cosmos DB

• Now, we will query the data on the above result set.
• Click on query builder, select Field Type Operator and type the value as shown in the below picture. Then, click on "Run" button.
  
  
  

• You will see the following result set.
  
  
  

This is how you can make Table API using Azure Cosmos DB.

Happy Learning.