title	description	author	ms.author	ms.date	ms.service	ms.topic	ms.devlang	ms.custom
Quickstart: Azure Blob Storage library - .NET	In this quickstart, you will learn how to use the Azure Blob Storage client library for .NET to create a container and a blob in Blob (object) storage. Next, you learn how to download the blob to your local computer, and how to list all of the blobs in a container.	pauljewellmsft	pauljewell	11/09/2022	azure-storage	quickstart	csharp	devx-track-csharp, mode-api, passwordless-dotnet, devx-track-dotnet

Quickstart: Azure Blob Storage client library for .NET

Get started with the Azure Blob Storage client library for .NET. Azure Blob Storage is Microsoft's object storage solution for the cloud. Follow these steps to install the package and try out example code for basic tasks. Blob storage is optimized for storing massive amounts of unstructured data.

API reference documentation | Library source code | Package (NuGet) | Samples

Prerequisites

Azure subscription - create one for free
Azure storage account - create a storage account
Current .NET SDK for your operating system. Be sure to get the SDK and not the runtime.

Setting up

This section walks you through preparing a project to work with the Azure Blob Storage client library for .NET.

Create the project

For the steps ahead, you'll need to create a .NET console app using either the .NET CLI or Visual Studio 2022.

Visual Studio 2022

At the top of Visual Studio, navigate to File > New > Project...
In the dialog window, enter console app into the project template search box and select the first result. Choose Next at the bottom of the dialog.

:::image type="content" source="media/storage-quickstart-blobs-dotnet/visual-studio-new-console-app.png" alt-text="A screenshot showing how to create a new project using Visual Studio.":::
For the Project Name, enter BlobQuickstart. Leave the default values for the rest of the fields and select Next.
For the Framework, ensure .NET 6.0 is selected. Then choose Create. The new project will open inside the Visual Studio environment.

.NET CLI

In a console window (such as cmd, PowerShell, or Bash), use the dotnet new command to create a new console app with the name BlobQuickstart. This command creates a simple "Hello World" C# project with a single source file: Program.cs.
```
dotnet new console -n BlobQuickstart
```
Switch to the newly created BlobQuickstart directory.
```
cd BlobQuickstart
```
Open the project in your desired code editor. To open the project in:
- Visual Studio, locate and double-click the BlobQuickStart.csproj file.
- Visual Studio Code, run the following command:
```
code .
```

Install the package

To interact with Azure Blob Storage, install the Azure Blob Storage client library for .NET.

Visual Studio 2022

In Solution Explorer, right-click the Dependencies node of your project. Select Manage NuGet Packages.
In the resulting window, search for Azure.Storage.Blobs. Select the appropriate result, and select Install.

:::image type="content" source="media/storage-quickstart-blobs-dotnet/visual-studio-add-package.png" alt-text="A screenshot showing how to add a new package using Visual Studio.":::

.NET CLI

Use the following command to install the Azure.Storage.Blobs package:

dotnet add package Azure.Storage.Blobs

If this command to add the package fails, follow these steps:

Make sure that nuget.org is added as a package source. You can list the package sources using the dotnet nuget list source command:
```
dotnet nuget list source
```
If you don't see nuget.org in the list, you can add it using the dotnet nuget add source command:
```
dotnet nuget add source https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json -n nuget.org
```

Now that the package source is updated, run the command to install the package.

Set up the app code

Replace the starting code in the Program.cs file so that it matches the following example, which includes the necessary using statements for this exercise.

using Azure.Storage.Blobs;
using Azure.Storage.Blobs.Models;
using System;
using System.IO;

// See https://aka.ms/new-console-template for more information
Console.WriteLine("Hello, World!");

[!INCLUDE storage-quickstart-credential-free-include]

Object model

Azure Blob Storage is optimized for storing massive amounts of unstructured data. Unstructured data doesn't adhere to a particular data model or definition, such as text or binary data. Blob storage offers three types of resources:

The storage account
A container in the storage account
A blob in the container

The following diagram shows the relationship between these resources.

Use the following .NET classes to interact with these resources:

BlobServiceClient: The BlobServiceClient class allows you to manipulate Azure Storage resources and blob containers.
BlobContainerClient: The BlobContainerClient class allows you to manipulate Azure Storage containers and their blobs.
BlobClient: The BlobClient class allows you to manipulate Azure Storage blobs.

Code examples

The sample code snippets in the following sections demonstrate how to perform basic data operations with the Azure Blob Storage client library for .NET.

Important

Make sure you have installed the correct NuGet packages and added the necessary using statements in order for the code samples to work, as described in the setting up section.

Azure.Identity (if you are using the passwordless approach)
Azure.Storage.Blobs

Create a container

Decide on a name for the new container. The code below appends a GUID value to the container name to ensure that it is unique.

Important

Container names must be lowercase. For more information about naming containers and blobs, see Naming and Referencing Containers, Blobs, and Metadata.

You can call the CreateBlobContainerAsync method on the blobServiceClient to create a container in your storage account.

Add this code to the end of the Program.cs class:

// TODO: Replace <storage-account-name> with your actual storage account name
var blobServiceClient = new BlobServiceClient(
        new Uri("https://<storage-account-name>.blob.core.windows.net"),
        new DefaultAzureCredential());

//Create a unique name for the container
string containerName = "quickstartblobs" + Guid.NewGuid().ToString();

// Create the container and return a container client object
BlobContainerClient containerClient = await blobServiceClient.CreateBlobContainerAsync(containerName);

To learn more about creating a container, and to explore more code samples, see Create a blob container with .NET.

Upload a blob to a container

Add the following code to the end of the Program.cs class:

// Create a local file in the ./data/ directory for uploading and downloading
string localPath = "data";
Directory.CreateDirectory(localPath);
string fileName = "quickstart" + Guid.NewGuid().ToString() + ".txt";
string localFilePath = Path.Combine(localPath, fileName);

// Write text to the file
await File.WriteAllTextAsync(localFilePath, "Hello, World!");

// Get a reference to a blob
BlobClient blobClient = containerClient.GetBlobClient(fileName);

Console.WriteLine("Uploading to Blob storage as blob:\n\t {0}\n", blobClient.Uri);

// Upload data from the local file
await blobClient.UploadAsync(localFilePath, true);

The code snippet completes the following steps:

Creates a text file in the local data directory.
Gets a reference to a BlobClient object by calling the GetBlobClient method on the container from the Create a container section.
Uploads the local text file to the blob by calling the UploadAsync method. This method creates the blob if it doesn't already exist, and overwrites it if it does.

To learn more about uploading blobs, and to explore more code samples, see Upload a blob with .NET.

List blobs in a container

List the blobs in the container by calling the GetBlobsAsync method. In this case, only one blob has been added to the container, so the listing operation returns just that one blob.

Add the following code to the end of the Program.cs class:

Console.WriteLine("Listing blobs...");

// List all blobs in the container
await foreach (BlobItem blobItem in containerClient.GetBlobsAsync())
{
    Console.WriteLine("\t" + blobItem.Name);
}

To learn more about listing blobs, and to explore more code samples, see List blobs with .NET.

Download a blob

Download the previously created blob by calling the DownloadToAsync method. The example code adds a suffix of "DOWNLOADED" to the file name so that you can see both files in local file system.

Add the following code to the end of the Program.cs class:

// Download the blob to a local file
// Append the string "DOWNLOADED" before the .txt extension 
// so you can compare the files in the data directory
string downloadFilePath = localFilePath.Replace(".txt", "DOWNLOADED.txt");

Console.WriteLine("\nDownloading blob to\n\t{0}\n", downloadFilePath);

// Download the blob's contents and save it to a file
await blobClient.DownloadToAsync(downloadFilePath);

To learn more about downloading blobs, and to explore more code samples, see Download a blob with .NET.

Delete a container

The following code cleans up the resources the app created by deleting the entire container by using DeleteAsync. It also deletes the local files created by the app.

The app pauses for user input by calling Console.ReadLine before it deletes the blob, container, and local files. This is a good chance to verify that the resources were actually created correctly, before they are deleted.

Add the following code to the end of the Program.cs class:

// Clean up
Console.Write("Press any key to begin clean up");
Console.ReadLine();

Console.WriteLine("Deleting blob container...");
await containerClient.DeleteAsync();

Console.WriteLine("Deleting the local source and downloaded files...");
File.Delete(localFilePath);
File.Delete(downloadFilePath);

Console.WriteLine("Done");

To learn more about deleting a container, and to explore more code samples, see Delete and restore a blob container with .NET.

The completed code

After completing these steps the code in your Program.cs file should now resemble the following:

Passwordless (Recommended)

using Azure.Storage.Blobs;
using Azure.Storage.Blobs.Models;
using Azure.Identity;

// TODO: Replace <storage-account-name> with your actual storage account name
var blobServiceClient = new BlobServiceClient(
        new Uri("https://<storage-account-name>.blob.core.windows.net"),
        new DefaultAzureCredential());

//Create a unique name for the container
string containerName = "quickstartblobs" + Guid.NewGuid().ToString();

// Create the container and return a container client object
BlobContainerClient containerClient = await blobServiceClient.CreateBlobContainerAsync(containerName);

// Create a local file in the ./data/ directory for uploading and downloading
string localPath = "data";
Directory.CreateDirectory(localPath);
string fileName = "quickstart" + Guid.NewGuid().ToString() + ".txt";
string localFilePath = Path.Combine(localPath, fileName);

// Write text to the file
await File.WriteAllTextAsync(localFilePath, "Hello, World!");

// Get a reference to a blob
BlobClient blobClient = containerClient.GetBlobClient(fileName);

Console.WriteLine("Uploading to Blob storage as blob:\n\t {0}\n", blobClient.Uri);

// Upload data from the local file
await blobClient.UploadAsync(localFilePath, true);

Console.WriteLine("Listing blobs...");

// List all blobs in the container
await foreach (BlobItem blobItem in containerClient.GetBlobsAsync())
{
    Console.WriteLine("\t" + blobItem.Name);
}

// Download the blob to a local file
// Append the string "DOWNLOADED" before the .txt extension 
// so you can compare the files in the data directory
string downloadFilePath = localFilePath.Replace(".txt", "DOWNLOADED.txt");

Console.WriteLine("\nDownloading blob to\n\t{0}\n", downloadFilePath);

// Download the blob's contents and save it to a file
await blobClient.DownloadToAsync(downloadFilePath);

// Clean up
Console.Write("Press any key to begin clean up");
Console.ReadLine();

Console.WriteLine("Deleting blob container...");
await containerClient.DeleteAsync();

Console.WriteLine("Deleting the local source and downloaded files...");
File.Delete(localFilePath);
File.Delete(downloadFilePath);

Console.WriteLine("Done");

Connection String

using Azure.Storage.Blobs;
using Azure.Storage.Blobs.Models;

// TODO: Replace <storage-account-name> with your actual storage account name
var blobServiceClient = new BlobServiceClient("<storage-account-connection-string>");

//Create a unique name for the container
string containerName = "quickstartblobs" + Guid.NewGuid().ToString();

// Create the container and return a container client object
BlobContainerClient containerClient = await blobServiceClient.CreateBlobContainerAsync(containerName);

// Create a local file in the ./data/ directory for uploading and downloading
string localPath = "data";
Directory.CreateDirectory(localPath);
string fileName = "quickstart" + Guid.NewGuid().ToString() + ".txt";
string localFilePath = Path.Combine(localPath, fileName);

// Write text to the file
await File.WriteAllTextAsync(localFilePath, "Hello, World!");

// Get a reference to a blob
BlobClient blobClient = containerClient.GetBlobClient(fileName);

Console.WriteLine("Uploading to Blob storage as blob:\n\t {0}\n", blobClient.Uri);

// Upload data from the local file
await blobClient.UploadAsync(localFilePath, true);

Console.WriteLine("Listing blobs...");

// List all blobs in the container
await foreach (BlobItem blobItem in containerClient.GetBlobsAsync())
{
    Console.WriteLine("\t" + blobItem.Name);
}

// Download the blob to a local file
// Append the string "DOWNLOADED" before the .txt extension 
// so you can compare the files in the data directory
string downloadFilePath = localFilePath.Replace(".txt", "DOWNLOADED.txt");

Console.WriteLine("\nDownloading blob to\n\t{0}\n", downloadFilePath);

// Download the blob's contents and save it to a file
await blobClient.DownloadToAsync(downloadFilePath);

// Clean up
Console.Write("Press any key to begin clean up");
Console.ReadLine();

Console.WriteLine("Deleting blob container...");
await containerClient.DeleteAsync();

Console.WriteLine("Deleting the local source and downloaded files...");
File.Delete(localFilePath);
File.Delete(downloadFilePath);

Console.WriteLine("Done");

Run the code

This app creates a test file in your local data folder and uploads it to Blob storage. The example then lists the blobs in the container and downloads the file with a new name so that you can compare the old and new files.

If you're using Visual Studio, press F5 to build and run the code and interact with the console app. If you're using the .NET CLI, navigate to your application directory, then build and run the application.

dotnet build

dotnet run

The output of the app is similar to the following example:

Azure Blob Storage - .NET quickstart sample

Uploading to Blob storage as blob:
         https://mystorageacct.blob.core.windows.net/quickstartblobs60c70d78-8d93-43ae-954d-8322058cfd64/quickstart2fe6c5b4-7918-46cb-96f4-8c4c5cb2fd31.txt

Listing blobs...
        quickstart2fe6c5b4-7918-46cb-96f4-8c4c5cb2fd31.txt

Downloading blob to
        ./data/quickstart2fe6c5b4-7918-46cb-96f4-8c4c5cb2fd31DOWNLOADED.txt

Press any key to begin clean up
Deleting blob container...
Deleting the local source and downloaded files...
Done

Before you begin the clean up process, check your data folder for the two files. You can open them and observe that they are identical.

After you've verified the files, press the Enter key to delete the test files and finish the demo.

Next steps

In this quickstart, you learned how to upload, download, and list blobs using .NET.

To see Blob storage sample apps, continue to:

[!div class="nextstepaction"] Azure Blob Storage library for .NET samples

To learn more, see the Azure Blob Storage client libraries for .NET.
For tutorials, samples, quick starts and other documentation, visit Azure for .NET developers.
To learn more about .NET, see Get started with .NET in 10 minutes.

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storage-quickstart-blobs-dotnet.md

storage-quickstart-blobs-dotnet.md

Quickstart: Azure Blob Storage client library for .NET

Prerequisites

Setting up

Create the project

Visual Studio 2022

.NET CLI

Install the package

Visual Studio 2022

.NET CLI

Set up the app code

Object model

Code examples

Create a container

Upload a blob to a container

List blobs in a container

Download a blob

Delete a container

The completed code

Passwordless (Recommended)

Connection String

Run the code

Next steps

Files

storage-quickstart-blobs-dotnet.md

Latest commit

History

storage-quickstart-blobs-dotnet.md

File metadata and controls

Quickstart: Azure Blob Storage client library for .NET

Prerequisites

Setting up

Create the project

Visual Studio 2022

.NET CLI

Install the package

Visual Studio 2022

.NET CLI

Set up the app code

Object model

Code examples

Create a container

Upload a blob to a container

List blobs in a container

Download a blob

Delete a container

The completed code

Passwordless (Recommended)

Connection String

Run the code

Next steps