Create an app to run basic queries

  • Article

Applies to: ✅ Azure Data Explorer

In this article, you learn how to:

Prerequisites

Set up your development environment to use the Kusto client library.

Run a basic query and process the results

In your preferred IDE or text editor, create a project or file named basic query using the convention appropriate for your preferred language. Then add the following code:

  1. Create a client app that connects to the help cluster.

    using Kusto.Data;
using Kusto.Data.Net.Client;

namespace BasicQuery {
  class BasicQuery {
    static void Main(string[] args) {
      var clusterUri = "https://help.chinaeast2.kusto.chinacloudapi.cn/";
      var kcsb = new KustoConnectionStringBuilder(clusterUri)
          .WithAadUserPromptAuthentication();

      using (var kustoClient = KustoClientFactory.CreateCslQueryProvider(kcsb)) {
      }
    }
  }
}

  2. Define the database and query to run. The query returns the date, state, and total tornado related damage where the total damage exceeded 100 million dollars.

    var database = "Samples";
var query = @"StormEvents
              | where EventType == 'Tornado'
              | extend TotalDamage = DamageProperty + DamageCrops
              | summarize DailyDamage=sum(TotalDamage) by State, bin(StartTime, 1d)
              | where DailyDamage > 100000000
              | order by DailyDamage desc";

  3. Run the query and print the result.

    using (var response = kustoClient.ExecuteQuery(database, query, null)) {
  int columnNoStartTime = response.GetOrdinal("StartTime");
  int columnNoState = response.GetOrdinal("State");
  int columnNoDailyDamage = response.GetOrdinal("DailyDamage");
  Console.WriteLine("Daily tornado damages over 100,000,000$:");

  while (response.Read()) {
    Console.WriteLine("{0} - {1}, {2}",
      response.GetDateTime(columnNoStartTime),
      response.GetString(columnNoState),
      response.GetInt64(columnNoDailyDamage));
  }
}

The complete code should look like this:

using Kusto.Data;
using Kusto.Data.Net.Client;

namespace BasicQuery {
  class BasicQuery {
    static void Main(string[] args) {
      string clusterUri = "https://help.chinaeast2.kusto.chinacloudapi.cn/";
      var kcsb = new KustoConnectionStringBuilder(clusterUri)
          .WithAadUserPromptAuthentication();

      using (var kustoClient = KustoClientFactory.CreateCslQueryProvider(kcsb)) {
        string database = "Samples";
        string query = @"StormEvents
                         | where EventType == 'Tornado'
                         | extend TotalDamage = DamageProperty + DamageCrops
                         | summarize DailyDamage=sum(TotalDamage) by State, bin(StartTime, 1d)
                         | where DailyDamage > 100000000
                         | order by DailyDamage desc";

        using (var response = kustoClient.ExecuteQuery(database, query, null)) {
          int columnNoStartTime = response.GetOrdinal("StartTime");
          int columnNoState = response.GetOrdinal("State");
          int columnNoDailyDamage = response.GetOrdinal("DailyDamage");

          Console.WriteLine("Daily tornado damages over 100,000,000$:");

          while (response.Read()) {
            Console.WriteLine("{0} - {1}, {2}",
              response.GetDateTime(columnNoStartTime),
              response.GetString(columnNoState),
              response.GetInt64(columnNoDailyDamage));
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Run your app

In a command shell, use the following command to run your app:

# Change directory to the folder that contains the basic queries project
dotnet run .

You should see a result similar to the following:

Daily damages tornado with damages over 100,000,000$:
2007-02-02 00:00:00+00:00 - FLORIDA , 270004000 $
2007-03-01 00:00:00+00:00 - ALABAMA , 266853000 $
2007-05-04 00:00:00+00:00 - KANSAS , 251625000 $
2007-03-01 00:00:00+00:00 - GEORGIA , 143688000 $

Use ordinal positions to access column values

When the order of columns in a query result is known, it's more efficient to access the values of the columns by their ordinal position in the result set than by their column name. Optionally, at runtime you can use a library method to determine a column ordinal from its column name.

Note

You can control the presence and order of columns in a query result by using the project or project-away operators.

For example, you can modify the previous code to access the values of the StartTime, State, and DailyDamage columns by their ordinal positions in the result set:

In C#, you can only access the values of the columns by their ordinal positions in the result set. You can't use the column names; hence, the code remains the same.

int columnNoStartTime = response.GetOrdinal("StartTime");
int columnNoState = response.GetOrdinal("State");
int columnNoDailyDamage = response.GetOrdinal("DailyDamage");
Console.WriteLine("Daily tornado damages over 100,000,000$:");

while (response.Read()) {
  Console.WriteLine("{0} - {1}, {2}",
    response.GetDateTime(columnNoStartTime),
    response.GetString(columnNoState),
    response.GetInt64(columnNoDailyDamage));
}

Customize query behavior with client request properties

You can customize the behavior of a query by setting client request properties. For more information on available options, see client request properties.

For example, you can replace the kusto_client.execute_query call in the previous code to pass a custom request ID and set the query timeout to 1 minute. To use the client request properties, you must import the ClientRequestProperties class.

using Kusto.Data.Common;

var crp = new ClientRequestProperties();
// Set a custom client request identifier
crp.ClientRequestId = "QueryDemo" + Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
// Set the query timeout to 1 minute
crp.SetOption(ClientRequestProperties.OptionServerTimeout, "1m");

using (var response = kustoClient.ExecuteQuery(database, query, crp)) {
}

Use query parameters to protect user input

Query parameters are important for maintaining the security and protection of your data. It safeguards it from potential malicious actors that may attempt to gain unauthorized access to or corrupt your data. For more information about parameterized queries, see Query parameters declaration statement.

For example, you can modify the previous code to pass the EventType value and DailyDamage minimum value as parameters to the query. To use parameters:

  1. Declare the parameters in the query text
  2. Substitute the property values in the query text with the parameter names
  3. Set the parameter values in the client request properties passed to the execute method
string query = @"declare query_parameters(event_type:string, daily_damage:int);
                  StormEvents
                  | where EventType == event_type
                  | extend TotalDamage = DamageProperty + DamageCrops
                  | summarize DailyDamage=sum(TotalDamage) by State, bin(StartTime, 1d)
                  | where DailyDamage > daily_damage
                  | order by DailyDamage desc";

var crp = new ClientRequestProperties();
crp.SetParameter("event_type", "Flash Flood");
crp.SetParameter("daily_damage", 200000000.ToString());

using (var response = kustoClient.ExecuteQuery(database, query, crp)) {
  int columnNoStartTime = response.GetOrdinal("StartTime");
  int columnNoState = response.GetOrdinal("State");
  int columnNoDailyDamage = response.GetOrdinal("DailyDamage");
  Console.WriteLine("Daily flash flood damages over 200,000,000$:");

  while (response.Read()) {
    Console.WriteLine("{0} - {1}, {2}",
      response.GetDateTime(columnNoStartTime),
      response.GetString(columnNoState),
      response.GetInt64(columnNoDailyDamage));
  }
}

The complete code using ordinal positions to access column values and parameters should look like this:

using Kusto.Data;
using Kusto.Data.Common;
using Kusto.Data.Net.Client;

namespace BasicQuery {
  class BasicQuery {
    static void Main(string[] args) {
      string clusterUri = "https://help.chinaeast2.kusto.chinacloudapi.cn/";
      var kcsb = new KustoConnectionStringBuilder(clusterUri)
          .WithAadUserPromptAuthentication();

      using (var kustoClient = KustoClientFactory.CreateCslQueryProvider(kcsb)) {
        string database = "Samples";
        string query = @"declare query_parameters(event_type:string, daily_damage:int);
                         StormEvents
                         | where EventType == event_type
                         | extend TotalDamage = DamageProperty + DamageCrops
                         | summarize DailyDamage=sum(TotalDamage) by State, bin(StartTime, 1d)
                         | where DailyDamage > daily_damage
                         | order by DailyDamage desc";

        var crp = new ClientRequestProperties();
        crp.ClientRequestId = "QueryDemo" + Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
        crp.SetOption(ClientRequestProperties.OptionServerTimeout, "1m");
        crp.SetParameter("event_type", "Flash Flood");
        crp.SetParameter("daily_damage", 200000000.ToString());

        using (var response = kustoClient.ExecuteQuery(database, query, crp)) {
          int columnNoStartTime = response.GetOrdinal("StartTime");
          int columnNoState = response.GetOrdinal("State");
          int columnNoDailyDamage = response.GetOrdinal("DailyDamage");

          Console.WriteLine("Daily flash flood damages over 200,000,000$:");

          while (response.Read()) {
            Console.WriteLine("{0} - {1}, {2}",
              response.GetDateTime(columnNoStartTime),
              response.GetString(columnNoState),
              response.GetInt64(columnNoDailyDamage));
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

You should see a result similar to the following:

Daily flash flood damages over 200,000,000$:
2007-08-21 00:00:00+00:00 - OHIO , 253320000 $

Next step

Create an app to run management commands