HdInsight.Contents

Accessing Data

Returns a navigation table of containers from an Azure HDInsight storage vault.

Syntax

HdInsight.Contents(account as text) as table

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`account`	`text`	Yes	The Azure storage account URL associated with the HDInsight cluster (e.g., "https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net").

Return Value

table — A navigation table containing one row for each container found at the Azure storage account URL, with a link to the container's blobs.

Remarks

HdInsight.Contents connects to the Azure storage account associated with an Azure HDInsight cluster and returns a navigation table listing all blob containers. Each row represents a container with a link to browse its blobs. This function is functionally equivalent to HdInsight.Containers and provides the same navigation table structure for accessing HDInsight-associated Azure Blob Storage.

Navigation table structure: The result is a navigation table where each row contains:

Name (text) -- the container name.
Data (table) -- a nested table of blobs within the container, accessible by drilling into this column.

Authentication: Requires the Azure storage account key for the storage account backing the HDInsight cluster. Configure the account key credential in the Power Query data source settings dialog using the storage account URL as the credential scope. Shared Access Signature (SAS) tokens may also be supported.

Account parameter: Pass the full Azure Blob Storage service endpoint URL (e.g., "https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net") or the storage account name alone. Power Query resolves the account name to the standard blob endpoint.

Comparison with HdInsight.Containers: HdInsight.Contents and HdInsight.Containers are equivalent -- both return a navigation table of containers from the same Azure storage account. They exist as aliases for compatibility. Use either function interchangeably.

Relationship to HDInsight: Azure HDInsight clusters use Azure Blob Storage (or Azure Data Lake Storage) as their default file system. This function provides access to the underlying storage containers where HDInsight stores input data, output results, and cluster logs.

Query folding: Not supported. Container enumeration and all filtering are performed in Power Query after the container list is retrieved from Azure Storage.

Platform availability: Available in Power BI Desktop, Power BI Service, Excel Desktop, and Dataflows. Not available in Excel Online or Fabric notebooks. In Power BI Service, the storage account key credential must be configured in the dataset's data source settings for scheduled refresh.

Examples

Example 1: List all containers in an HDInsight storage account

HdInsight.Contents("https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net")

Example 2: Navigate to a specific container and browse its blobs

let
    Containers = HdInsight.Contents("https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net"),
    DataContainer = Containers{[Name = "hdinsight-data"]}[Data]
in
    DataContainer

Example 3: List all containers and their names

let
    Source = HdInsight.Contents("mystorageaccount"),
    ContainerNames = Source[Name]
in
    ContainerNames

Compatibility

✓ Power BI Desktop✓ Power BI Service✓ Excel Desktop✗ Excel Online✓ Dataflows✗ Fabric Notebooks