Saving Images in Databases

[jmcilhinney]

VB version here.

This question gets asked all the time so I thought an example was in order.

Loading an image from a database field:

SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection("connection string here");
SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand("SELECT Picture FROM MyTable WHERE ID = 1", connection);
 
connection.Open();
 
byte[] pictureData = (byte[])command.ExecuteScalar();
 
connection.Close();
 
Image picture = null;
 
// Create a stream in memory containing the bytes that comprise the image.
using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream(pictureData))
{
    // Read the stream and create an Image object from the data.
    picture = Image.FromStream(stream);
}

Saving an image to a database field:

SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection("connection string here");
SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand("UPDATE MyTable SET Picture = @Picture WHERE ID = 1", connection);
 
// Create an Image object.
using (Image picture = Image.FromFile("file path here"))
{
    // Create an empty stream in memory.
    using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream())
    {
        // Fill the stream with the binary data from the Image.
        picture.Save(stream, ImageFormat.Jpeg);
 
        // Get an array of Bytes from the stream and assign to the parameter.
        command.Parameters.Add("@Picture", SqlDbType.VarBinary).Value = stream.GetBuffer();
    }
}
 
connection.Open();
command.ExecuteNonQuery();
connection.Close();

Please take note: this is example code only. Please don't paste it into your project and then ask why it doesn't work. Note also that while this code uses ExecuteScalar to get a single image's worth of data and ExecuteNonQuery to update a single existing record, the principles are the same no matter how you're retrieving and saving your data. The important part is the MemoryStream. That is the link between the Byte array that gets stored in the database and the binary Image object in your C# app. For example, if you have 100 rows in a DataTable then you just use a MemoryStream for each row and assign the Byte array to the appropriate field of each row. You then just call the Update method of your DataAdapter as normal.