Not having duplicates in Azure Tables?

Question

If I have one object, 'Student', which will be associated with 2 'Course' objects, I think I need to add the student to azure tables first with a partitionkey of 'Class1_Student1', and then again with 'Class2_Student1'.

My understanding is that I would then have duplicate student objects, just with different partitionkeys.

What I would like is to add a Student and point it to multiple classes, where if I ask for that student I get the same object.  Or a way to check before adding if this student exists and if so reuse the existing object.

What's the best way to accomplish this?  Or does needing this functionality suggest I should be looking towards SQL Azure?

Answer 1

Hi,

Azure tables identify unique rows with the combination of Partition key and row key.Hence you can make use of both partition key and row key to identify unique rows as well as there is no need for the duplication of “Student” object.

Example:

 

Partition Key	Row Key	Mark1	Mark2
Student1	Class1	###	###
Student1	Class2	@@@	@@
Student2	Class1	^^	^^

Please note that the combination of row key and partition key is unique and cannot be duplicated.

 More information please visit:

http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/how-to-guides/table-services/

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jnak/archive/2008/10/28/walkthrough-simple-table-storage.aspx

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Thanks!

VIJAY.