How to show image in Picture Box from database

You can also use this code sample step by step

Create a SQL Server or Access table with the following structure:

CREATE TABLE BLOBTest
(
BLOBID INT IDENTITY NOT NULL,
BLOBData IMAGE NOT NULL
)

Open Visual Studio .NET and create a new Visual C# Windows Application Project.
Add a PictureBox and two Button controls to the default Form1 from the toolbox. Set the Text property of Button1 to File to Database and the Text property of Button2 to Database to PictureBox.

Insert the following using statements at the top of the form's code module:

using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.IO;
using System.Drawing.Imaging;

Add the following declaration for the database connection string just inside the public class Form1 : System.Windows.Forms.Form class declaration and adjust the connection string as necessary:
```
    String strCn = "Data Source=localhost;integrated security=sspi;initial catalog=mydata";
					
```

Insert the following code in the Click event procedure of Button1 (File to Database). Adjust the file path to an available sample image file as necessary. This code reads the image file from disk (using a FileStream object) into a Byte array, and then inserts the data into the database by using a parameterized Command object.

try
{
	SqlConnection cn = new SqlConnection(strCn);
	SqlCommand cmd =  new SqlCommand("INSERT INTO BLOBTest (BLOBData) VALUES (@BLOBData)", cn);
	String strBLOBFilePath = @"C:\blue hills.jpg";//Modify this path as needed.

	//Read jpg into file stream, and from there into Byte array.
	FileStream fsBLOBFile =  new FileStream(strBLOBFilePath,FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
	Byte[] bytBLOBData = new Byte[fsBLOBFile.Length]; 
	fsBLOBFile.Read(bytBLOBData, 0, bytBLOBData.Length);
	fsBLOBFile.Close();

	//Create parameter for insert command and add to SqlCommand object.
	SqlParameter prm = new  SqlParameter("@BLOBData", SqlDbType.VarBinary, bytBLOBData.Length, ParameterDirection.Input, false, 
				0, 0, null, DataRowVersion.Current, bytBLOBData);
	cmd.Parameters.Add(prm);

	//Open connection, execute query, and close connection.
	cn.Open();
	cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
	cn.Close();
}catch(Exception ex)
{MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);}

Insert the following code in the Click event procedure of Button2 (Database to PictureBox). This code retrieves the rows from the BLOBTest table in the database into a DataSet, copies the most recently added image into a Byte array and then into a MemoryStream object, and then loads the MemoryStream into the Image property of the PictureBox control.

try
{
	SqlConnection cn = new SqlConnection(strCn);
	cn.Open();

	//Retrieve BLOB from database into DataSet.
	SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("SELECT BLOBID, BLOBData FROM BLOBTest ORDER BY BLOBID", cn);	
	SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(cmd);
	DataSet ds = new DataSet();
	da.Fill(ds, "BLOBTest");
	int c = ds.Tables["BLOBTest"].Rows.Count;

	if(c>0)
	{   //BLOB is read into Byte array, then used to construct MemoryStream,
		//then passed to PictureBox.
		Byte[] byteBLOBData =  new Byte[0];
		byteBLOBData = (Byte[])(ds.Tables["BLOBTest"].Rows[c - 1]["BLOBData"]);
		MemoryStream stmBLOBData = new MemoryStream(byteBLOBData);
		pictureBox1.Image= Image.FromStream(stmBLOBData);
	} 
	cn.Close();
}
catch(Exception ex)
{MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);}

Press F5 to compile and run the project.
Click the File to Database button to load at least one sample image into the database.
Click the Database to PictureBox button to display the saved image in the PictureBox control.

If you would like to be able to insert the image from the PictureBox control directly into the database, add a third Button control and insert the following code in its Click event procedure. This code retrieves the image data from the PictureBox control into a MemoryStream object, copies the MemoryStream into a Byte array, and then saves the Byte array to the database using a parameterized Command object.

try
{
	SqlConnection cn = new SqlConnection(strCn);
	SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("INSERT INTO BLOBTest (BLOBData) VALUES (@BLOBData)", cn);

	//Save image from PictureBox into MemoryStream object.
	MemoryStream ms  = new MemoryStream();
	pictureBox1.Image.Save(ms, ImageFormat.Jpeg);

	//Read from MemoryStream into Byte array.
	Byte[] bytBLOBData = new Byte[ms.Length];
	ms.Position = 0;
	ms.Read(bytBLOBData, 0, Convert.ToInt32(ms.Length));

	//Create parameter for insert statement that contains image.
	SqlParameter prm = new SqlParameter("@BLOBData", SqlDbType.VarBinary, bytBLOBData.Length, ParameterDirection.Input, false, 
					0, 0,null, DataRowVersion.Current, bytBLOBData);
	cmd.Parameters.Add(prm);
	cn.Open();
	cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
	cn.Close();
}catch(Exception  ex)
 {MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);}

Run the project. Click the Database to PictureBox button to display a previously saved image in the PictureBox control. Click the newly added button to save the image from the PictureBox into the database. Then click the Database to PictureBox button again to confirm that the image was saved correctly.