Query Entities (REST API)

For requests using the $select query option, the request must be made using version 2011-08-18 or newer. In addition, the DataServiceVersion and MaxDataServiceVersion headers must be set to 2.0. The Query Entities request may be constructed as follows. HTTPS is recommended. Replace myaccount with the name of your storage account, and mytable with the name of your table:

The address of the entity set to be queried may take a number of forms on the request URI. For more information, see Querying Tables and Entities.

Emulated Storage Service URI

URI Parameters

Request Headers

Request Body

Sample Request

Request Syntax:
GET /myaccount/Customers()?$filter=(Rating%20ge%203)%20and%20(Rating%20le%206)&$select=PartitionKey,RowKey,Address,CustomerSince  HTTP/1.1

Request Headers:
x-ms-version: 2011-08-18
x-ms-date: Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:25:14 GMT
Authorization: SharedKeyLite myaccount:<some key>
Accept: application/atom+xml,application/xml
Accept-Charset: UTF-8
DataServiceVersion: 2.0;NetFx
MaxDataServiceVersion: 2.0;NetFx

The response includes an HTTP status code, a set of response headers, and a response body.

Status Code

Response Headers

Sample Response

Response Status:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK

Response Headers:
Content-Type: application/atom+xml;charset=utf-8
x-ms-request-id: 87f178c0-44fe-4123-a4c1-96c8fa6d9654
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:25:14 GMT
x-ms-version: 2011-08-18
Connection: close

Response Body

GET /myaccount/Customers()?$filter=(Rating%20ge%203)%20and%20(Rating%20le%206)&$select=PartitionKey,RowKey,Address,CustomerSince

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<feed xml:base="https://myaccount.table.core.windows.net/" xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices/metadata" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
  <title type="text">Customers</title>
  <id>https://myaccount.table.core.windows.net/Customers</id>
  <updated>2008-10-01T15:26:13Z</updated>
  <link rel="self" title="Customers" href="Customers" />
  <entry m:etag="W/&quot;datetime'2008-10-01T15%3A26%3A04.6812774Z'&quot;">
  <id>https://myaccount.table.core.windows.net/Customers(PartitionKey='Customer03',RowKey='Name')</id>
    <title type="text"></title>
    <updated>2008-10-01T15:26:13Z</updated>
    <author>
      <name />
    </author>
    <link rel="edit" title="Customers" href="Customers (PartitionKey='Customer03',RowKey='Name')" />
    <category term="myaccount.Customers" scheme="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ado/2007/08/dataservices/scheme" />
    <content type="application/xml">
      <m:properties>
        <d:PartitionKey>Customer03</d:PartitionKey>
        <d:RowKey>Name</d:RowKey>
        <d:Address m:null="true" />
        <d:CustomerSince m:type="Edm.DateTime">2008-10-01T15:25:05.2852025Z</d:CustomerSince>
      </m:properties>
    </content>
  </entry>
</feed>

This operation can be performed by the account owner and by anyone with a shared access signature that has permission to perform this operation.

A query against the Table service may return a maximum of 1,000 entities at one time and may execute for a maximum of five seconds. If the result set contains more than 1,000 entities, if the query did not complete within five seconds, or if the query crosses the partition boundary, the response includes custom headers containing a set of continuation tokens. The continuation tokens may be used to construct a subsequent request for the next page of data. For more information about continuation tokens, see Query Timeout and Pagination.

For projection requests using the $select query option, the request must be made using version 2011-08-18 or newer. The maximum number of returned properties is 255, and all projected properties will be included in the response body even if the property is not part of the returned entity. For example, if the request includes a property that the projected entity does not contain, the missing property is marked with a null attribute. The sample response body above includes the Address property, which is not part of the projected entity, so the property is null: <d:Address m:null=”true” />

The total time allotted to the request for scheduling and processing the query is 30 seconds, including the five seconds for query execution.

Note that the right-hand side of a query expression must be a constant; you cannot reference a property on the right-hand side of the expression. See Querying Tables and Entities for details on constructing query expressions.

A query expression may not contain null values. The following characters must be encoded if they are to be used in a query string:

• Forward slash (/)
  
  
• Question mark (?)
  
  
• Colon (:)
  
  
• 'At' symbol (@)
  
  
• Ampersand (&)
  
  
• Equals sign (=)
  
  
• Plus sign (+)
  
  
• Comma (,)
  
  
• Dollar sign ($)
  
  

Any application that can authenticate and send an HTTP GET request can query entities in a table.

You can also use the WCF Data Services Client Library to construct a query by using LINQ. For more information about supported query operations against the Table service through LINQ, see Query Operators (Table Service Support) and Writing LINQ Queries.

Note
Currently, the .NET Client Library throws a DataServiceRequestException when a query is executed against a resource that does not exist.

Reference

Concepts