Images and mySQL

I have seen articles and tutorials on the internet about saving images in a mySQL database. I was wondering if anyone could tell me what the advantage is, if any, of storing an image in a database instead of a directory.

-Libadisauce

The only advantage I can think of is that te data is contained. When you delete a record, the picture gets removed as well, without any other work. Also you don't have to dream up funny names for pictures. Many sites I see picture names like 5943875458.jpg.

I would say that you should only use it if they are a standard size and only relevant to that specific row. A person's photo is the type of picture that might be placed in a database, or thumbnail pictures of products. Anything standard, really. It must be directly related to the data in that row, obviously.

If the pictures are of varying sizes, I would avoid it.

Thanks -vertigo-. I can see how that can make some things easier and why it might be used.