---
title: "Inserting an image from a file"
description: "Describes how to work with an image from a file."
ms.date: "08/15/2019"
dev_langs: 
  - "csharp"
ms.assetid: 35900aa2-5615-4174-8212-ba184c6b82fb
ms.prod: sql
ms.prod_service: connectivity
ms.technology: connectivity
ms.topic: conceptual
author: David-Engel
ms.author: v-daenge
ms.reviewer: v-kaywon
---
# Inserting an image from a file

[!INCLUDE[Driver_ADONET_Download](../../../includes/driver_adonet_download.md)]

You can write a binary large object (BLOB) to a database as either binary or character data, depending on the type of field at your data source. BLOB is a generic term that refers to the `text`, `ntext`, and `image` data types, which typically contain documents and pictures.  
  
To write a BLOB value to your database, issue the appropriate INSERT or UPDATE statement and pass the BLOB value as an input parameter. If your BLOB is stored as text, such as a SQL Server `text` field, you can pass the BLOB as a string parameter. If the BLOB is stored in binary format, such as a SQL Server `image` field, you can pass an array of type `byte` as a binary parameter.
  
## Example  
The following code example adds employee information to the Employees table in the Northwind database. A photo of the employee is read from a file and added to the Photo field in the table, which is an image field.  
  
```csharp  
public static void AddEmployee(  
  string lastName,   
  string firstName,   
  string title,   
  DateTime hireDate,   
  int reportsTo,   
  string photoFilePath,   
  string connectionString)  
{  
  byte[] photo = GetPhoto(photoFilePath);  
  
  using (SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(  
    connectionString))  
  
  SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand(  
    "INSERT INTO Employees (LastName, FirstName, " +  
    "Title, HireDate, ReportsTo, Photo) " +  
    "Values(@LastName, @FirstName, @Title, " +  
    "@HireDate, @ReportsTo, @Photo)", connection);   
  
  command.Parameters.Add("@LastName",    
     SqlDbType.NVarChar, 20).Value = lastName;  
  command.Parameters.Add("@FirstName",   
      SqlDbType.NVarChar, 10).Value = firstName;  
  command.Parameters.Add("@Title",       
      SqlDbType.NVarChar, 30).Value = title;  
  command.Parameters.Add("@HireDate",   
       SqlDbType.DateTime).Value = hireDate;  
  command.Parameters.Add("@ReportsTo",   
      SqlDbType.Int).Value = reportsTo;  
  
  command.Parameters.Add("@Photo",  
      SqlDbType.Image, photo.Length).Value = photo;  
  
  connection.Open();  
  command.ExecuteNonQuery();  
  }  
}  
  
public static byte[] GetPhoto(string filePath)  
{  
  FileStream stream = new FileStream(  
      filePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);  
  BinaryReader reader = new BinaryReader(stream);  
  
  byte[] photo = reader.ReadBytes((int)stream.Length);  
  
  reader.Close();  
  stream.Close();  
  
  return photo;  
}  
```  
  
## Next steps
- [SQL Server binary and large-value data](sql-server-binary-large-value-data.md)