Question

I am retrieving a byte blob from an SQLite database/record set. I am not experienced with garbage collection yet.

When I say:

Dim bt() As Byte
bt = r.fields("mybyteblob").value

… is that okay or unsafe?

I would like to make a copy of the byte array in the record set field, and I am not sure if I am simply referencing the byte array here instead of copying it.

Answer 1

In your code you are only referencing the byte array.
If you want to copy it you need

Dim bt() As Byte 
if r.fields("mybyteblob").Value Is not Nothing then 
    dim lenArray = r.fields("mybyteblob").Length
    bt = new Byte(lenArray)
    Array.Copy(r.fields("mybyteblob").value, bt, lenArray)
end if

There is another alternative.
The Buffer class is faster than Array and more appropriate because you are using a byte array

Dim bt() As Byte 
if r.fields("mybyteblob").Value Is not Nothing then 
    dim lenArray = r.fields("mybyteblob").Length
    bt = new Byte(lenArray)
    Buffer.BlockCopy(r.fields("mybyteblob").value, 0, bt, 0, lenArray)
end if

Here a good question on the two methods