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Create a blob container with .NET

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  • 2 minutes to read

Blobs in Azure Storage are organized into containers. Before you can upload a blob, you must first create a container. This article shows how to create containers with the Azure Storage client library for .NET.

Note

The examples in this article assume that you've created a BlobServiceClient object by using the guidance in the Get started with Azure Blob Storage and .NET article.

Name a container

A container name must be a valid DNS name, as it forms part of the unique URI used to address the container or its blobs. Follow these rules when naming a container:

  • Container names can be between 3 and 63 characters long.
  • Container names must start with a letter or number, and can contain only lowercase letters, numbers, and the dash (-) character.
  • Two or more consecutive dash characters aren't permitted in container names.

The URI for a container is in this format:

https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer

Create a container

To create a container, call one of the following methods from the BlobServiceClient class:

You can also create a container using one of the following methods from the BlobContainerClient class:

These methods throw an exception if a container with the same name already exists.

Containers are created immediately beneath the storage account. It's not possible to nest one container beneath another.

The following example uses a BlobServiceClient object to create a container asynchronously:

//-------------------------------------------------
// Create a container
//-------------------------------------------------
private static async Task<BlobContainerClient> CreateSampleContainerAsync(BlobServiceClient blobServiceClient)
{
    // Name the sample container based on new GUID to ensure uniqueness.
    // The container name must be lowercase.
    string containerName = "container-" + Guid.NewGuid();

    try
    {
        // Create the container
        BlobContainerClient container = await blobServiceClient.CreateBlobContainerAsync(containerName);

        if (await container.ExistsAsync())
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Created container {0}", container.Name);
            return container;
        }
    }
    catch (RequestFailedException e)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("HTTP error code {0}: {1}",
                            e.Status, e.ErrorCode);
        Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
    }

    return null;
}

Create the root container

A root container serves as a default container for your storage account. Each storage account may have one root container, which must be named $root. The root container must be explicitly created or deleted.

You can reference a blob stored in the root container without including the root container name. The root container enables you to reference a blob at the top level of the storage account hierarchy. For example, you can reference a blob that is in the root container in the following manner:

https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/default.html

The following example creates the root container synchronously:

//-------------------------------------------------
// Create root container
//-------------------------------------------------
private static void CreateRootContainer(BlobServiceClient blobServiceClient)
{
    try
    {
        // Create the root container or handle the exception if it already exists
        BlobContainerClient container =  blobServiceClient.CreateBlobContainer("$root");

        if (container.Exists())
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Created root container.");
        }
    }
    catch (RequestFailedException e)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("HTTP error code {0}: {1}",
                            e.Status, e.ErrorCode);
        Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
    }
}

See also