如何在 Visual Studio 2010 的数据库中包含图像

Question

I'm fairly new to C# .Net. We're being taught it at University and are using Visual Studio to create windows forms. As a new part to the subject we're using databases, tables and datasets.

I opened a new Windows Form project and immediately added a new database to it. The table I want to create will have 2 columns - ImageID and the image itself. In what way do i add the image in to the box? I've tried full path, relative path and dragging the image in, but whatever I do i get the same error message....

Invalid Value
The changed value in this cell was not recognized as being valid. .Net Framework Data Type: Byte[]
Error Message: You cannot use the result pane to set this Field data to values other than NULL
Type a value appropriate for the data type or press ESC to cancel the change

How can I have images in there? I just don't know how to use the image data type within the table. Any help is much appreciated.

Answer 1

A simpler approach is to store the image in the file system and only its path in the database. Basically you define a base folder:

string baseFolder = "c:\Program Files\MyApp\Images";

And use it to store relative paths in the database:

INSERT INTO ImagesTable (Name, Path)
Values ('German Shepherd', 'Dogs\german-shepherd.jpg')

Then, when you need to retrieve the image, you can do it like this:

string path = Path.Combine(baseFolder, 'Dogs\german-shepherd.jpg');
Image img = Image.FromFile(path);

In the following SO question you can find more information about the pros and cons of this approach:

• Should I store my images in the database or folders?

Answer 2

you can store images in sql server 2008. Just create database table having column datatype "image". now from .net code use the file upload control to select the image file and then convert the image parameter into byte[] before inserting image data into the database.