Can I save an 'Object' in a SQL Server database?

I want to save an object (of any type) into a field in a database in SQL Server 2005. Is it possible? Do I have to convert the object into something, like a byte array for example and cast it back when retrieving it?

You can use the VARBINARY(MAX) field type in SQL Server, if you like. You can store any type of object in there, up to 2 GB in size.

To access it, you can use ADO.NET - something like this:

object yourMysteryObject = (whatever you like it to be);

MemoryStream memStream = new MemoryStream();
StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(memStream);

sw.Write(yourMysteryObject);

SqlCommand sqlCmd = new SqlCommand("INSERT INTO TableName(VarBinaryColumn) VALUES (@VarBinary)", sqlConnection);

sqlCmd.Parameters.Add("@VarBinary", SqlDbType.VarBinary, Int32.MaxValue);

sqlCmd.Parameters["@VarBinary"].Value = memStream.GetBuffer();

sqlCmd.ExecuteNonQuery();

Marc

I would use JSON to convert the object to a string, and store it in a VARCHAR or TEXT field. Not only the data is stored in a human-readable format, but it's also also readable from different languages, since pretty much every mainstream language has a JSON parser available.

The link I posted has links to several libraries in many languages (including C#), I have used this one a couple times in the past.