title: How do I specify the field types when using the Azure CLI entity insert command?
body: <p>Does anyone know if there is a way to define the field types when using this Azure CLI 2.0 command </p>
  
  <pre><code>az storage entity insert . . . 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>from a Windows Power Shell prompt?</p>
  
  <p>When I use it, all of the fields get inserted into the table with a type of string.</p>
  
  <p>The parameters, as documented here <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/storage/entity?view=azure-cli-latest#az_storage_entity_insert" rel="nofollow noreferrer">az storage entity insert
  </a>, don't contain a way to explicitly state the method for defining the field types.</p>
  
  <p>I'd like to be able to explicitly define the various field types for the non-string fields.</p>
  
  <p>I've googled the above command a few ways and don't see any examples where folks are doing that.</p>
  
  <p>I've tried inserting into an existing table where the fields and associated types already exist in other rows but the insert doesn't honor those values; probably because the types are attached to each row and not the table itself.</p>
  
  <p>Also, I've tried inserting into a new table and the types aren't deduced (e.g., <code>...fieldname=false...</code> is interpreted as a string and not a boolean.)</p>
  
  <p>The Azure Storage Explorer will export rows. In the export, there are additional columns with the name structure of <em><code>fieldname</code></em><code>@type</code> with values such as <code>Edm.String</code>,<code>Edm.Boolean</code>, etc. Using that structure, I've attempted to include those additional "fields" in the <code>key=value</code> pairs as a hint to the parser, but the call fails when I do that.</p>
  
  <p>Without a way to define the types, this command seems only useful if all your field types are strings.</p>