Display Image From Byte Array In C# and ASP.NET

In this tutorial, I am going to explain how to display an image from a byte array in ASP.NET MVC using C# .NET and VB.NET. 

1. Open Visual Studio and create a new MVC project.
2. Once the project is loaded, right-click on the Controllers folder and add a new Controller.
3. Create an Images folder in your project and add a sample image.
4. Now, open the DemoController and add the GetImageFromByteArray action method.
5. Within the action method, place the code given below (Below, I have given the entire Controller code).

C#.NET Code

using System;  
using System.Collections.Generic;  
using System.Linq;  
using System.Web;  
using System.Web.Mvc;  
  
namespace DemoProject.Controllers  
{  
    public class DemoController : Controller  
    {  
        // GET: Demo/GetImageFromByteArray  
        public ActionResult GetImageFromByteArray()  
        {  
            // Get image path  
            string imgPath = Server.MapPath("~/images/self-discipline.png");  
            // Convert image to byte array  
            byte[] byteData = System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(imgPath);  
            //Convert byte arry to base64string   
            string imreBase64Data = Convert.ToBase64String(byteData);  
            string imgDataURL = string.Format("data:image/png;base64,{0}", imreBase64Data);  
            //Passing image data in viewbag to view  
            ViewBag.ImageData = imgDataURL;  
            return View();  
        }  
    }  
}

VB.NET Code

1. Imports System.Collections.Generic  
   Imports System.Linq  
   Imports System.Web  
   Imports System.Web.Mvc  
     
   Namespace DemoProject.Controllers  
       Public Class DemoController  
           Inherits Controller  
           ' GET: Demo/Image  
           Public Function GetImageFromByteArray() As ActionResult  
               ' Get image path  
               Dim imgPath As String = Server.MapPath("~/images/self-discipline.png")  
               ' Convert image to byte array  
               Dim byteData As Byte() = System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(imgPath)  
               'Convert byte arry to base64string   
               Dim imreBase64Data As String = Convert.ToBase64String(byteData)  
               Dim imgDataURL As String = String.Format("data:image/png;base64,{0}", imreBase64Data)  
               'Passing image data in viewbag to view  
               ViewBag.ImageData = imgDataURL  
               Return View()  
           End Function  
       End Class  
   End Namespace  

    

Now, let me explain what is there in the code.

1. I read the image from the folder into an imgPath local variable.
2. In the second step, I converted the image into a byte array using the ReadAllBytes method.
3. And then, I converted the byte array into base 64 string format using Convert.ToBase64String method.
4. Now, I have appended data:image/png;base64 at the beginning of the base64 string so that the browser knows that the src attribute value itself contains the image data.
5. Finally, I have assigned this image data in the ViewBag and returned it to the View.

Now, add a new View to the GetImageFromByteArray action method. And add an image view. We can directly assign the image data from ViewBag to src attribute of the image tag like below.

@{  
    ViewBag.Title = "Asp.Net MVC Display image from byte array";  
}  
  
<h2>Asp.Net MVC Display image from byte array</h2>  
<img src="@ViewBag.ImageData">

Output

Now, if you run the program, you can see the output of how to display the image from the byte array.



Now, if you look into the source of the page, you can see the base 64 string rendered as an image.

Conclusion

I hope you learned how to display the image from a byte array in ASP.NET. Please post your comments and feedback below.