ASP.NET C# Get retrieve and show image from SQL Server database

Question

I want to retrieve an image from a SQL Server database and show in a Image tool.

I have this code

<asp:Image ID="Image1" runat="server" CssClass="style2" Height="166px" Width="488px" />
SqlConnection connect = null;
string connectstring = "Data Source=.\\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=teste;Integrated Security=true;pooling=false";
connect = new SqlConnection(connectstring);
connect.Open();
string Scmd = "SELECT id, imagem where id = 2";
SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(Scmd, connect);
SqlDataReader reader = cmd.ExecuteReader();
reader.Read();
if (reader.HasRows)
{
 Label1.Text = reader[0].ToString(); 
 byte[] imagem = (byte[])(reader[1]);
 MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(imagem);
 Image1.ImageUrl = ms.FromStream(ms); //i tried this
}

But I can't do this:

Image1.ImageUrl = ms.FromStream(ms);

because I get an error.

Somebody please can help me? The only problem I have is show the image.

Please help, thanks.

• meda: the recommended way is to store the path to your image, so that once retrieved from the db, you can build the url to the image
• Icemanind: You should be wrapping your reader, your MemoryStream, your cmd and your connection in using blocks.
• Hogan: There is no way to answer this question since you don't show how Image1 is declared. Is this a web application? If so then you will need a url. You will also probably need a server to deliver the data from the database when that URL is accessed. OR you could store the image as a file and use a standard url no service needed.
• Stephen Kennedy: ...or write an ashx handler to fetch the image from the db and return it as a binary stream.
• mybirthname: I'm pretty sure that saving a path of the picture is not a good idea, but okay :)

Answer 1

You can generate base64string out of byte array and use that as inline image source.

1. Convert to base64string. Refer this.

byte[] imagem = (byte[])(reader[1]);
string base64String = Convert.ToBase64String(imagem) ;

2. Use this string as inline image like following. Refer this.

Image1.ImageUrl = String.Format("data:image/jpg;base64,{0}",base64String);

Assumption: image saved as jpg.

If this differs, then change line in step#2.

Disclaimer: Base64string as image is suitable for small sized image , but if we have bigger image, then the string produced will have large sized string. Advantage is , browser don't have to request multiple times for each image ( if you implemented this as image.src= "http://handler-to-image").

• rossisdead: Of course, this just about doubles the download size of the image.
• Hogan: This solution reveals a horrible design. This won't scale.