Convert a Bitmapimage into a Byte Array and Vice Versa in UWP Platform

This was a big problem for me for a while. Because it’s a must to store a image in a database. But finally solved it. It’s worth writing a blog post because in Windows 10 some APIs has been changed. So let’s start.

We use a stream object to do this conversion.



To convert the bitmap image into a byte[] do the following ,(here I’m doing the conversion when the user selects a image using a file picker. Because in this method I need the storage file to open a stream).

using System.IO;
//call this when selecting an image from the picker
FileOpenPicker picker = newFileOpenPicker();
picker.FileTypeFilter.Add(".bmp");
picker.FileTypeFilter.Add(".png");
picker.FileTypeFilter.Add(".jpg");
StorageFile file = awaitpicker.PickSingleFileAsync();
using(var inputStream = await file.OpenSequentialReadAsync())
{
    var readStream = inputStream.AsStreamForRead();
    byte[] buffer = newbyte[readStream.Length];
    await readStream.ReadAsync(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
    returnbuffer;
}

To convert a byte[] into a bitmap image do the following,

//This task will return aimage from provided the byte[].
using(InMemoryRandomAccessStream stream = newInMemoryRandomAccessStream())
{
    using(DataWriter writer = newDataWriter(stream.GetOutputStreamAt(0)))
    {
        writer.WriteBytes(array);
        awaitwriter.StoreAsync();
    }
    BitmapImage image = newBitmapImage();
    awaitimage.SetSourceAsync(stream);
    return image;
}

Here’s a screenshot of a simple app I created using these methods.