Delete and restore a blob container with JavaScript or TypeScript

• .NET
• Java
• JavaScript
• Python
• Go

This article shows how to delete containers with the Azure Storage client library for JavaScript. If you've enabled container soft delete, you can restore deleted containers.

Prerequisites

• The examples in this article assume you already have a project set up to work with the Azure Blob Storage client library for JavaScript. To learn about setting up your project, including package installation, importing modules, and creating an authorized client object to work with data resources, see Get started with Azure Blob Storage and JavaScript.
• The authorization mechanism must have permissions to delete a blob container, or to restore a soft-deleted container. To learn more, see the authorization guidance for the following REST API operations:
  • Delete Container
  • Restore Container

Delete a container

To delete a container, use the following method from the BlobServiceClient class:

• BlobServiceClient.deleteContainer

You can also delete a container using the following method from the ContainerClient class:

• ContainerClient.delete
• ContainerClient.deleteIfExists

After you delete a container, you can't create a container with the same name for at least 30 seconds. Attempting to create a container with the same name fails with HTTP error code 409 (Conflict). Any other operations on the container or the blobs it contains fail with HTTP error code 404 (Not Found).

The following example uses a BlobServiceClient object to delete the specified container:

JavaScript

async function deleteContainer(blobServiceClient, containerName) {
  
  return await blobServiceClient.deleteContainer(containerName);
}

TypeScript

async function deleteContainer(
  blobServiceClient: BlobServiceClient,
  containerName: string
): Promise<ContainerDeleteResponse> {

  return await blobServiceClient.deleteContainer(containerName);
}

The following example shows how to delete all containers that start with a specified prefix:

JavaScript

async function deleteContainersWithPrefix(blobServiceClient, prefix) {

  const containerOptions = {
    includeDeleted: false,
    includeMetadata: false,
    includeSystem: true,
    prefix
  }

  for await (const containerItem of blobServiceClient.listContainers(containerOptions)) {

    try{
      const containerClient = blobServiceClient.getContainerClient(containerItem.name);

      await containerClient.delete();
  
      console.log(`Deleted ${containerItem.name} container - success`);
    }catch(ex){
      console.log(`Deleted ${containerItem.name} container - failed - ${ex.message}`);
    }
  }
}

TypeScript

async function deleteContainersWithPrefix(
  blobServiceClient: BlobServiceClient,
  prefix: string
): Promise<void> {

  const containerOptions: ServiceListContainersOptions = {
    includeDeleted: false,
    includeMetadata: false,
    includeSystem: true,
    prefix
  };

  for await (const containerItem of blobServiceClient.listContainers(
    containerOptions
  )) {
    try {
      const containerClient: ContainerClient =
        blobServiceClient.getContainerClient(containerItem.name);

      const containerDeleteMethodOptions: ContainerDeleteMethodOptions = {};

      await containerClient.delete(containerDeleteMethodOptions);

      console.log(`Deleted ${containerItem.name} container - success`);
    } catch (err: unknown) {
      if (err instanceof Error) {
        console.log(
          `Deleted ${containerItem.name} container - failed - ${err.message}`
        );
      }
    }
  }
}

Restore a deleted container

When container soft delete is enabled for a storage account, a container and its contents can be recovered after it has been deleted, within a retention period that you specify. You can restore a soft-deleted container using a BlobServiceClient object:

• BlobServiceClient.undeleteContainer

The following example finds a deleted container, gets the version ID of that deleted container, and then passes that ID into the undeleteContainer method to restore the container.

JavaScript

async function undeleteContainer(blobServiceClient, containerName) {
  
  // Version to restore
  let containerVersion;

  const containerOptions = {
    includeDeleted: true,
    prefix: containerName
  }

  // Find the deleted container and restore it
  for await (const containerItem of blobServiceClient.listContainers(containerOptions)) {
    if (containerItem.name === containerName) {
      containerVersion = containerItem.version;
    }
  }

  const containerClient = await blobServiceClient.undeleteContainer(
    containerName,
    containerVersion,
  );
}

TypeScript

async function undeleteContainer(
  blobServiceClient: BlobServiceClient,
  containerName: string
): Promise<void> {
  
  // version to undelete
  let containerVersion: string | undefined;

  const containerOptions: ServiceListContainersOptions = {
    includeDeleted: true,
    prefix: containerName
  };

  // Find the deleted container and restore it
  for await (const containerItem of blobServiceClient.listContainers(
    containerOptions
  )) {
    if (containerItem.name === containerName) {
      containerVersion = containerItem.version as string;
    }
  }

  if (containerVersion !== undefined) {
    const serviceUndeleteContainerOptions: ServiceUndeleteContainerOptions = {};

    const {
      containerClient,
      containerUndeleteResponse
    }: {
      containerClient: ContainerClient;
      containerUndeleteResponse: ContainerUndeleteResponse;
    } = await blobServiceClient.undeleteContainer(
      containerName,
      containerVersion,
      serviceUndeleteContainerOptions
    );
  }
}

Resources

To learn more about deleting a container using the Azure Blob Storage client library for JavaScript, see the following resources.

Code samples

• View JavaScript and TypeScript code samples from this article (GitHub)

REST API operations

The Azure SDK for JavaScript contains libraries that build on top of the Azure REST API, allowing you to interact with REST API operations through familiar JavaScript paradigms. The client library methods for deleting or restoring a container use the following REST API operations:

• Delete Container (REST API)
• Restore Container (REST API)

Client library resources

• Client library reference documentation
• Client library source code
• Package (npm)

See also

• Soft delete for containers
• Enable and manage soft delete for containers

Related content

• This article is part of the Blob Storage developer guide for JavaScript/Typescript. To learn more, see the full list of developer guide articles at Build your JavaScript/Typescript app.