Can I save an ‘Object’ in a SQL Server database?

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