Storing and accessing bitmaps in the database w/JDBC

Hi,

I'm having trouble converting bit maps to a form that I can store in the
database. Here is part of a test app I've been messin' with.

String binString = new String("101010100011001111100011");
int byteCount = 3;
byte[] byteArray = new byte[byteCount];

// build a byte array
int bitCount = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < byteCount, i++)
{
Integer val = Integer.valueOf(bin.substring(bitCount, bitCount + 8,
2);
bitCount += 8;
byteArray[i] = val.byteValue();
}

// store it in the database
PreparedStatemept p = conn.prepareStatement("Insert into table1 (mapval)
values (?)");
p.setBytes(1, byteArray);
p.executeUpdate()

I'm getting the following exception
Attribute 'mapval' is of type 'bytea' but expression is of type 'int4'
You will need to rewrite or cast the expression

On a related note, I'm a little unclear about bytea. Is bytea data always
stored as a large object ?

Thanks for the help.