Insert and update entities

To insert or update an entity, you include with the request an OData ATOM or OData JSON entity that specifies the properties and data for the entity. For more information about the format of the payload, see Payload format for Azure Table Storage operations.

The Insert Entity operation inserts a new entity with a unique primary key, formed from the combination of the partition key and the row key. The Update Entity operation replaces an existing entity with the same PartitionKey and RowKey. The Merge Entity operation updates the properties of an existing entity, but doesn't replace the entity.

The Insert Or Merge Entity operation creates a new entity with a unique primary key, or updates the properties of an existing entity, but doesn't replace the entity. The Insert Or Replace Entity operation creates a new entity with a unique primary key, or replaces an existing entity.

Construct the Atom feed

The Atom feed for an insert or update operation defines the entity's properties by specifying their names and data types, and sets the values for those properties.

The content element contains the entity's property definitions, which are specified within the m:properties element. The property's type is specified by the m:type attribute. For detailed information about property types, see Payload format for Table Storage operations.

Here's an example of an Atom feed for an Insert Entity operation:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>  
<entry xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices/metadata" xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">  
  <title />  
  <author>  
    <name />  
  </author>  
  <id />  
  <content type="application/xml">  
    <m:properties>  
      <d:Address>Mountain View</d:Address>  
      <d:Age m:type="Edm.Int32">23</d:Age>  
      <d:AmountDue m:type="Edm.Double">200.23</d:AmountDue>  
      <d:BinaryData m:type="Edm.Binary" m:null="true" />  
      <d:CustomerCode m:type="Edm.Guid">c9da6455-213d-42c9-9a79-3e9149a57833</d:CustomerCode>  
      <d:CustomerSince m:type="Edm.DateTime">2008-07-10T00:00:00</d:CustomerSince>  
      <d:IsActive m:type="Edm.Boolean">true</d:IsActive>  
      <d:NumOfOrders m:type="Edm.Int64">255</d:NumOfOrders>  
      <d:PartitionKey>mypartitionkey</d:PartitionKey>  
      <d:RowKey>myrowkey1</d:RowKey>  
    </m:properties>  
  </content>  
</entry>  

Construct the JSON feed

To insert or update an entity by using the OData JSON format, create a JSON object with property names as keys, together with their property values. You might need to include the property type if it can't be inferred through OData JSON type detection heuristics.

The JSON payload corresponding to the preceding Atom example is as follows:

{  
   "Address":"Mountain View",  
   "Age":23,  
   "AmountDue":200.23,  
   "CustomerCode@odata.type":"Edm.Guid",  
   "CustomerCode":"c9da6455-213d-42c9-9a79-3e9149a57833",  
   "CustomerSince@odata.type":"Edm.DateTime",  
   "CustomerSince":"2008-07-10T00:00:00",  
   "IsActive":true,  
   "NumOfOrders@odata.type":"Edm.Int64",  
   "NumOfOrders":"255",  
   "PartitionKey":"mypartitionkey",  
   "RowKey":"myrowkey"  
}  
  

See also

Table Storage concepts
Operations on entities