Embedding Images in HTML using C#

In HTML pages, images are typically linked rather than embedded using the

<img src="[protocol]://[url]" />

tag. If you want to embed the image data, for example to handle just a single file containing text and images, you need to replace the src attribute with the Base64-encoded binary content of the image using the data: protocol:

<img src="data:image/jpeg;base64,[data]">

To encode an image file in Base64, use the following function (originally found here):

string MakeImageSrcData(string filename)
{
  FileStream fs = new FileStream(filename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
  byte[] filebytes = new byte[fs.Length];
  fs.Read(filebytes, 0, Convert.ToInt32(fs.Length));
  return "data:image/png;base64," +
    Convert.ToBase64String(filebytes, Base64FormattingOptions.None);
}

This function can now be used to render an image in either aspx/ascx:

<img src="<%=MakeImageSrcData("c:\path\to\my.png") %>" />

or C#

Response.Output.WriteLine("<img src=\"" + 
    MakeImageSrcData("c:\path\to\my.png") + "\"/>");

The rendering result depends on the browser, though, as Wikipedia describes:

• Firefox and Chrome render the embedded images correctly
• Internet Explorer (7 (Vista)/8 (Win7)) only renders some because of a 32kB limit
• Word 2007 only renders image placeholders

This is too bad, since I originally intended to generate WordHtml and include pictures directly in HTML.

Calculating the Length of the Longest Common Subsequence in TSQL

When trying to calculate the similarity of strings, the Levenshtein Distance comes up as one way to solve this problem, as it counts the number of additions, deletions and substitutions of characters to transform one string into the other.

The inverse solution is to count the number of characters that are the same in both strings in the same order, known as the Longest Common Subsequence problem (LCS).

The code presented here uses the same technique as the Levenshtein algorithm in storing a two-dimensional array of integers as an NVARCHAR(MAX), i.e. a string of Unicode characters encoding the integers in a matrix.

First, we need a function Max2() to retrieve the maximum of two integers:

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[Max2](@a int, @b int)
RETURNS INT AS
BEGIN
  IF @a > @b
    RETURN @a
  RETURN @b
END

and then the T-SQL version of the algorithm:

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[LCS]( @s NVARCHAR(MAX), @t NVARCHAR(MAX) )
RETURNS INT AS
BEGIN
  DECLARE @d NVARCHAR(MAX), @LD INT, @m INT, @n INT, @i INT, @j INT, 
    @s_i NCHAR(1), @t_j NCHAR(1)

  SET @n = LEN(@s)
  IF @n = 0 RETURN 0

  SET @m = LEN(@t)
  IF @m = 0 RETURN 0

  SET @d = REPLICATE(NCHAR(0),(@n+1)*(@m+1))

  SET @i = 1
  WHILE @i <= @n BEGIN
    SET @s_i = SUBSTRING(@s,@i,1)

    SET @j = 1
    WHILE @j <= @m BEGIN
      SET @t_j = SUBSTRING(@t,@j,1)

      IF @s_i = @t_j

        SET @d = STUFF(@d,@j*(@n+1)+@i+1,1,
          NCHAR(UNICODE(
            SUBSTRING(@d, (@j-1)*(@n+1)+@i-1+1, 1)
            )+1))

      ELSE

        SET @d = STUFF(@d,@j*(@n+1)+@i+1,1,NCHAR(dbo.Max2(
          UNICODE(SUBSTRING(@d,@j*(@n+1)+@i-1+1,1)),
          UNICODE(SUBSTRING(@d,(@j-1)*(@n+1)+@i+1,1)))))

      SET @j = @j+1
    END
    SET @i = @i+1
  END      

  SET @LD = UNICODE(SUBSTRING(@d,@n*(@m+1)+@m+1,1))
  RETURN @LD
END

TSQL String Functions

While searching for appropriate string comparison functions in TSQL, I came across these pages implementing a couple of

string functions: Capitalize, Center, Count Substring in String, EndsWith, ExpandTabs, IsAlnum, IsAlpha,
IsDigit, IsLower, IsTitle, IsSpace, LJust, LStrip, RFind, RJust, RStrip, Strip, SwapCase, Title, Zfill

and string tuple functions: Split, SplitLines, Within, EndsWith, StartsWith, Contains, Join, Parts, Partition, RPartition

See here for more TSQL articles by the authors.

Calculating Levenshtein Distance in TSQL

I tried to find a method to compare strings according to their similarity, and first came across the Levenshtein distance which defines the distance (or degree of similarity) between two strings as the minimum number of additions, deletions, and substitutions of single characters needed to transform one string into the other.

I found this implementation of the Levenshtein algorithm in T-SQL, but noted a couple of errors:

First, the function returns a VARCHAR result, where you would expect an INT.

Next, due to the restriction of parameters and variables to VARCHAR(50) and VARCHAR(100), only strings with a limited number of characters could be compared. (The code may have been written before the introduction of VARCHAR(MAX)).

Furthermore, the distance matrix is stored in an array of CHAR, which only allows for a maximum difference of 255 characters to be handled correctly.

The Levenshtein algorithm requires a function to find the minimum of 3 integers:

create function [dbo].[min3](@a int, @b int, @c int)
returns int as
begin
  declare @min int
  set @min = @a
  if @b < @min set @min = @b
  if @c < @min set @min = @c
  return @min
end

And this is the code:

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[LEVENSHTEIN]( @s NVARCHAR(MAX), @t NVARCHAR(MAX) )
/*
Levenshtein Distance Algorithm: TSQL Implementation
by Joseph Gama
http://www.merriampark.com/ldtsql.htm

Returns the Levenshtein Distance between strings s1 and s2.
Original developer: Michael Gilleland http://www.merriampark.com/ld.htm
Translated to TSQL by Joseph Gama

Fixed by Herbert Oppolzer / devio
as described in https://devio.wordpress.com/2010/09/07/calculating-levenshtein-distance-in-tsql
*/
RETURNS INT AS
BEGIN
  DECLARE @d NVARCHAR(MAX), @LD INT, @m INT, @n INT, @i INT, @j INT,
    @s_i NCHAR(1), @t_j NCHAR(1),@cost INT

  --Step 1
  SET @n = LEN(@s)
  SET @m = LEN(@t)
  SET @d = REPLICATE(NCHAR(0),(@n+1)*(@m+1))
  IF @n = 0
  BEGIN
    SET @LD = @m
   GOTO done
  END
  IF @m = 0
  BEGIN
    SET @LD = @n
    GOTO done
  END

  --Step 2
  SET @i = 0
  WHILE @i <= @n BEGIN
    SET @d = STUFF(@d,@i+1,1,NCHAR(@i))        --d(i, 0) = i
    SET @i = @i+1
  END

  SET @i = 0
  WHILE @i <= @m BEGIN
    SET @d = STUFF(@d,@i*(@n+1)+1,1,NCHAR(@i))    --d(0, j) = j
    SET @i = @i+1
  END

  --Step 3
  SET @i = 1
  WHILE @i <= @n BEGIN
    SET @s_i = SUBSTRING(@s,@i,1)

    --Step 4
    SET @j = 1
    WHILE @j <= @m BEGIN
      SET @t_j = SUBSTRING(@t,@j,1)
      --Step 5
      IF @s_i = @t_j
        SET @cost = 0
      ELSE
        SET @cost = 1
      --Step 6
      SET @d = STUFF(@d,@j*(@n+1)+@i+1,1,
        NCHAR(dbo.MIN3(
          UNICODE(SUBSTRING(@d,@j*(@n+1)+@i-1+1,1))+1,
          UNICODE(SUBSTRING(@d,(@j-1)*(@n+1)+@i+1,1))+1,
          UNICODE(SUBSTRING(@d,(@j-1)*(@n+1)+@i-1+1,1))+@cost)
        ))
      SET @j = @j+1
    END
    SET @i = @i+1
  END      

  --Step 7
  SET @LD = UNICODE(SUBSTRING(@d,@n*(@m+1)+@m+1,1))

done:
  RETURN @LD
END