Truncate azure table storage

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Truncate azure table storage

Vineet S 1,390

Hi Wanted to truncate azure storage table but unable to do so using trucnate and web acitivity...pls help me with screenshot

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https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/tables/table-storage-overview

Rahul Gosavi 191 Reputation points

2025-05-22T06:23:05.2766667+00:00

I had used powershell to do this kind of activity, I had written a blog on it, you can refer:

https://medium.com/@rahulgosavi.94/overcoming-azure-storage-account-backup-limitations-using-powershell-and-adf-c1621045542c

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Rahul Gosavi 191 Reputation points

2025-05-22T06:23:05.2766667+00:00

I had used powershell to do this kind of activity, I had written a blog on it, you can refer:

https://medium.com/@rahulgosavi.94/overcoming-azure-storage-account-backup-limitations-using-powershell-and-adf-c1621045542c

Answer 1

RevelinoB 3,685

Hello Vineet, I’ve been in the same situation, and it was honestly more frustrating than I expected.

I was trying to truncate an Azure Storage Table using a Web activity in Azure Data Factory, assuming it would be as simple as calling a DELETE or something similar. But it turns out, Azure Table Storage doesn’t support a direct “truncate” operation. There’s no single API call to just wipe the whole table — which is super counterintuitive.

I tried all sorts of workarounds: messing with Web activities, different endpoints, hoping there was some undocumented trick... but nothing worked. In the end, I had to create a small Azure Function that deletes all entities in the table, and then trigger that function from ADF. It works, but definitely not something you figure out in five minutes.

This page actually helped me more than the general overview:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/rest/api/storageservices/delete-entity1

Hope that helps — let me know if you want a hand with setting up the function or calling it from ADF. It’s a bit of a pain at first, but it’s manageable once you know the trick.

Best regards,

Revelino

Vineet S 1,390

What is delete entity web activity??? Any screenshot and what is rowkey?? Tablename can construct the Delete Entity request as follows. HTTPS is recommended. Replace myaccount with the name of your storage account, mytable with the name of your table, and myPartitionKey and myRowKey with the name of the partition key and row key identifying the entity to be deleted.

Expand table

Method	Request URI	HTTP version
DELETE	https://myaccount.table.core.windows.net/mytable(PartitionKey='myPartitionKey', RowKey='myRowKey')
`DELETE`	`https://myaccount.table.core.windows.net/mytable(PartitionKey='myPartitionKey', RowKey='myRowKey')`

RevelinoB 3,685 Reputation points

2025-05-21T19:24:49.4533333+00:00
Hi Vineet, If you're trying to delete a row from Azure Table Storage using Azure Data Factory (ADF), you can use a Web Activity to do that — but it’s a bit tricky.

See below to understand what a "Delete Entity Web Activity" is?

It is a Web Activity in ADF lets you send HTTP requests to REST APIs. In this case, you’re sending a DELETE request to Azure Table Storage to remove a single row. But to do that, you need to know exactly which row you’re deleting.

So see below for what a RowKey (and PartitionKey) is?

Azure Table Storage doesn’t use traditional IDs like SQL. Instead, each row is uniquely identified by two values:

PartitionKey – groups rows together, kind of like a category

RowKey – the unique identifier within that partition

Together, these two are used to locate and delete a specific row. You can’t delete a row unless you provide both.

The Web Activity looks like

It sends a request that looks like this:

DELETE https://<yourstorageaccount>.table.core.windows.net/<tablename>(PartitionKey='X',RowKey='Y')

You replace <tablename>, 'X', and 'Y' with your actual table name and the specific PartitionKey and RowKey of the row you want to delete.

Azure Table Storage uses authentication called Shared Key Authorization — and that’s not easy to generate directly inside Data Factory. That’s why most people (including myself) use an Azure Function or Logic App to handle the deletion, and just call that from ADF. It’s way simpler and more secure.

Just to summarize for you

The Web Activity is just sending a DELETE HTTP request.

You need to know the exact PartitionKey and RowKey of the row you want to delete.

You can technically call the Azure Table Storage REST API directly, but handling authentication is messy.

Easiest option: use a small Azure Function that deletes the row, and trigger it from ADF.

Hope this helps.
Vineet S 1,390 Reputation points

2025-05-21T19:33:45.06+00:00

Hi

I want to delete all the rows
Vineet S 1,390 Reputation points

2025-05-21T19:45:00.2066667+00:00

URI https://ft01.table.core.windows.net/mytable1

body and headers ??
Vineet S 1,390 Reputation points

2025-05-21T19:53:31.4233333+00:00

partitionkey
Vineet S 1,390 Reputation points

2025-05-21T20:39:25.0233333+00:00

authorization
Vineet S 1,390 Reputation points

2025-05-21T22:27:47.3433333+00:00
Vineet S 1,390 Reputation points

2025-05-21T22:31:01.0133333+00:00
Vineet S 1,390 Reputation points

2025-05-21T22:31:35.42+00:00

resolved

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Truncate azure table storage

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