Saving Image in mySQL

Hi All I don’t understand how to save an image to a mySQL table based on the following form. I am trying to do this using Prepared Statements. All the fields except the image file itself save in the database. Right now I have $file as the variable when binding the values. What should it be? Ron === <form action="add_my_image.php" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data"> <label for="file">Filename:</label> <input type="file" name="file"><br> <input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit"> </form> === mySQL table structure: === reference – INT 10 auto_increment primary caption – VARCHAR 250 image_type – VARCHAR 100 image_size – INT 10 image_name – VARCHAR 100 image – LONGBLOB === Prepared Statement: === # mySQL query $query = "INSERT INTO my_images ( reference , caption , image_type , image_size , image_name , image ) VALUES ( NULL , :caption , :image_type , :image_size , :image_name , :image );"; # apply query to Prepared Statement if($stmt = $dbh->prepare( $query )) { # bind variables $stmt->bindValue(':caption', 'Test Caption', PDO::PARAM_STR); $stmt->bindValue(':image_type', $_FILES["file"]["type"], PDO::PARAM_STR); $stmt->bindValue(':image_size', $_FILES["file"]["size"], PDO::PARAM_INT); $stmt->bindValue(':image_name', $_FILES["file"]["name"], PDO::PARAM_STR); $stmt->bindValue(':image', $file, PDO::PARAM_STR); # execute query if ( $stmt->execute() or die(print_r($stmt->errorInfo(), true)) ) { # retrieve auto_increment value $new_record_reference = $dbh->lastInsertId(); } } === Ron Piggott www.TheVerseOfTheDay.info