Create and manage Azure Queue Storage and messages by using .NET

  • 3 minutes

In this unit we're covering how to create queues and manage messages in Azure Queue Storage by showing code snippets from a .NET project.

The code examples rely on the following NuGet packages:

Create the Queue service client

The QueueClient class enables you to retrieve queues stored in Queue storage. Here's one way to create the service client:

QueueClient queueClient = new QueueClient(connectionString, queueName);

Create a queue

This example shows how to create a queue if it doesn't already exist:

// Get the connection string from app settings
string connectionString = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["StorageConnectionString"];

// Instantiate a QueueClient which will be used to create and manipulate the queue
QueueClient queueClient = new QueueClient(connectionString, queueName);

// Create the queue
queueClient.CreateIfNotExists();

Insert a message into a queue

To insert a message into an existing queue, call the SendMessage method. A message can be either a string (in UTF-8 format) or a byte array. The following code creates a queue (if it doesn't exist) and inserts a message:

// Get the connection string from app settings
string connectionString = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["StorageConnectionString"];

// Instantiate a QueueClient which will be used to create and manipulate the queue
QueueClient queueClient = new QueueClient(connectionString, queueName);

// Create the queue if it doesn't already exist
queueClient.CreateIfNotExists();

if (queueClient.Exists())
{
    // Send a message to the queue
    queueClient.SendMessage(message);
}

Peek at the next message

You can peek at the messages in the queue without removing them from the queue by calling the PeekMessages method. If you don't pass a value for the maxMessages parameter, the default is to peek at one message.

// Get the connection string from app settings
string connectionString = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["StorageConnectionString"];

// Instantiate a QueueClient which will be used to manipulate the queue
QueueClient queueClient = new QueueClient(connectionString, queueName);

if (queueClient.Exists())
{ 
    // Peek at the next message
    PeekedMessage[] peekedMessage = queueClient.PeekMessages();
}

Change the contents of a queued message

You can change the contents of a message in-place in the queue. If the message represents a work task, you could use this feature to update the status of the work task. The following code updates the queue message with new contents, and sets the visibility timeout to extend another 60 seconds. This saves the state of work associated with the message, and gives the client another minute to continue working on the message.

// Get the connection string from app settings
string connectionString = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["StorageConnectionString"];

// Instantiate a QueueClient which will be used to manipulate the queue
QueueClient queueClient = new QueueClient(connectionString, queueName);

if (queueClient.Exists())
{
    // Get the message from the queue
    QueueMessage[] message = queueClient.ReceiveMessages();

    // Update the message contents
    queueClient.UpdateMessage(message[0].MessageId, 
            message[0].PopReceipt, 
            "Updated contents",
            TimeSpan.FromSeconds(60.0)  // Make it invisible for another 60 seconds
        );
}

Dequeue the next message

Dequeue a message from a queue in two steps. When you call ReceiveMessages, you get the next message in a queue. A message returned from ReceiveMessages becomes invisible to any other code reading messages from this queue. By default, this message stays invisible for 30 seconds. To finish removing the message from the queue, you must also call DeleteMessage. This two-step process of removing a message assures that if your code fails to process a message due to hardware or software failure, another instance of your code can get the same message and try again. Your code calls DeleteMessage right after the message has been processed.

// Get the connection string from app settings
string connectionString = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["StorageConnectionString"];

// Instantiate a QueueClient which will be used to manipulate the queue
QueueClient queueClient = new QueueClient(connectionString, queueName);

if (queueClient.Exists())
{
    // Get the next message
    QueueMessage[] retrievedMessage = queueClient.ReceiveMessages();

    // Process (i.e. print) the message in less than 30 seconds
    Console.WriteLine($"Dequeued message: '{retrievedMessage[0].Body}'");

    // Delete the message
    queueClient.DeleteMessage(retrievedMessage[0].MessageId, retrievedMessage[0].PopReceipt);
}

Get the queue length

You can get an estimate of the number of messages in a queue. The GetProperties method returns queue properties including the message count. The ApproximateMessagesCount property contains the approximate number of messages in the queue. This number isn't lower than the actual number of messages in the queue, but could be higher.

/// Instantiate a QueueClient which will be used to manipulate the queue
QueueClient queueClient = new QueueClient(connectionString, queueName);

if (queueClient.Exists())
{
    QueueProperties properties = queueClient.GetProperties();

    // Retrieve the cached approximate message count.
    int cachedMessagesCount = properties.ApproximateMessagesCount;

    // Display number of messages.
    Console.WriteLine($"Number of messages in queue: {cachedMessagesCount}");
}

Delete a queue

To delete a queue and all the messages contained in it, call the Delete method on the queue object.

/// Get the connection string from app settings
string connectionString = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["StorageConnectionString"];

// Instantiate a QueueClient which will be used to manipulate the queue
QueueClient queueClient = new QueueClient(connectionString, queueName);

if (queueClient.Exists())
{
    // Delete the queue
    queueClient.Delete();
}