Question

Is BLOB is the only data type by which an image can be stored in database.What is the advantage of using BLOB.What about portability in BLOB datatype.Please give tutorial based on image storage.

Answer 1

Besides storing bytes in a Blob typed column, another way could be to convert the bytes into Base64 string and simply store that string in a Text typed column. And regarding portability, you decide which one’s better and you prefer. Personally I like to play with strings rather than bytes 🙂

To convert image into Base64 string:

ByteArrayOutputStream stream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
mBitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 80, stream);
final byte[] byteArray = stream.toByteArray();
final String imgString = Base64.encodeToString(byteArray, Base64.DEFAULT);

To convert Base64 string into image:

byte[] byteArray = Base64.decode(imgString, Base64.DEFAULT);
Bitmap mBitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeByteArray(byteArray, 0, byteArray.length);