Parameter is not valid when selecting image from SQL Server database

Question

I'm facing an issue when trying to select an image field from the SQL server.

Here's the select code:

string cmd = String.Format("SELECT TOP 1 * FROM {0}", DefTableNames.Employees.ToString());

DataTable data = SQLDataQueryToTable(FullServerPath(), cmd);

CurrentEditingIndex = int.Parse(data.Rows[0][0].ToString());
empNameDropDown.SelectedItem = empNameDropDown.Items[0];
empNameTxt.Texts = data.Rows[0][1].ToString();
empIdTxt.Texts = data.Rows[0][2].ToString();
empPhoneTxt.Texts = data.Rows[0][3].ToString();
empEducationTxt.Texts = data.Rows[0][4].ToString();
empJobNameTxt.Texts = data.Rows[0][5].ToString();
TextTools.Currencize(data.Rows[0][6].ToString(), empTotalAllTxt);
empAboutTxt.Texts = data.Rows[0][7].ToString();
empBirthDatePicker.Value = DateTime.Parse(data.Rows[0][8].ToString(), CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
empJobDatePicker.Value = DateTime.Parse(data.Rows[0][9].ToString(), CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

Console.WriteLine(data.Rows[0][10]);

image_employeeimage.Image = byteArrayToImage((byte[])data.Rows[0][10], null);

if (image_employeeimage.Image != null)
{
    buttonDeleteImage.Enabled = true;
    buttonDeleteImage.BackColor = Color.Brown;
}
else
{
    buttonDeleteImage.Enabled = false;
    buttonDeleteImage.BackColor = AColors.DisabledColor;
}

empUserDropDown.SelectedItem = data.Rows[0][11].ToString();

The code fills everything in properly, however, it keeps stopping at the method for conversion of the data to an image.

Here's the conversion code:

public static Image byteArrayToImage(byte[] byteArrayIn, Image defaultImage = null)
{
    if (byteArrayIn == null)
    {
        return defaultImage;
    }

    Image returnImage;

    using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(byteArrayIn))
    {
        returnImage = Image.FromStream(ms);
    }

    return returnImage;
}

The code stops exactly at here:

Here's the code that converts to byte[]:

    public static byte[] imageToByteArray(System.Drawing.Image imageIn)
    {
        MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
        imageIn.Save(ms, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Gif);
        return ms.ToArray();
    }

When I try to do a Console.WriteLine for the value of the image, I get the proper value. Which is System.Byte[].

The type of column in the database is set to VarBinary.

What exactly am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

I found my problem. The issue was pretty dumb:

    public static byte[] imageToByteArray(Image imageIn)
    {
        MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
        imageIn.Save(ms, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Gif);
        return ms.ToArray();
    }

I was saving the image as a gif. Which when I changed to this:

    public static byte[] imageToByteArray(Image imageIn)
    {
        MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
        imageIn.Save(ms, imageIn.RawFormat);
        return ms.ToArray();
    }

Fixed the entire issue.

And I also found a big problem in the save code. I was defining the size of the data as 255. This also led to the images not loading at times or loading as null. This was in the original code that I didn't share:

        if(image_employeeimage.Image == null)
        {
            sqlParams.Add(new SqlParameter("@image", SqlDbType.VarBinary, 255)); sqlParams[9].Value = DBNull.Value;
        }
        else
        {
            sqlParams.Add(new SqlParameter("@image", SqlDbType.VarBinary, 255)); sqlParams[9].Value = imageToByteArray(image_employeeimage.Image);
        }

I simply removed 255.

Everything seems fine now. Thanks a lot for the help everyone, and thanks for the tips on my code.

If there are any comments on my fix, please share them.