Store an image in a SQL Server CE database

Question

Does any one know of an example on how to store an image in a SQL Server CE database?

What data type should the column be? (I am guessing binary.)

I use Linq-To-Datasets. Is it possible using that to put the image into the database and pull it out again later?

Thanks for any advice.

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Here is how I did it:

MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream();
myBitmapImage.Save(stream, ImageFormat.Png);
myInsertLinqToDataSetRow.IMAGE_COLUMN = stream.ToArray();

To load it back out again I did this:

MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream(myLinqToDataSetRow.IMAGE_COLUMN);
myBitmapImage.SignatureImage = new Bitmap(stream);

I found a page on MSDN that said that the Image column type is going away and that you should use varbinary(MAX). Max is not supported on SQL Server CE so I did varbinary(8000).

LATER NOTE: while varbinary(max) is not supported on SQL Server CE. Varbinary(8000) is not big enough for many images. I did end up using the Image type even though it is planned to be deprecated. Once ms offers a resonable alternitive on the mobile platform I will consider switching.

Answer 1

Here is an MSDN article explaining how:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318639

Unfortunately, the example is in VB, but I am sure that you can get the idea of how to do it.

I would say the binary datatype would be fine for storing the images.