VARBINARY

MySQL

Example

CREATE TABLE VarbinaryTest (
    id INT AUTO_INCREMENT,
    data VARBINARY(10),
    PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

INSERT INTO VarbinaryTest (data)
VALUES (0x5468697320495320412054657374);

Output

SELECT * FROM VarbinaryTest;

id	data
1	0x5468697320495320412054657374

Explanation

In this example, a VARBINARY column data is created and then populated with a hex value. When this value is later retrieved, it is shown in its binary form. The VARBINARY type stores binary data as a variable-length string, up to a maximum length that is specified in parentheses. It is useful for holding non-character data such as images or other types of binary files.

SQL Server

Example

CREATE TABLE VarbinaryExample
(
    ID INT PRIMARY KEY,
    BinaryData VARBINARY(MAX)
)
INSERT INTO VarbinaryExample (ID, BinaryData) VALUES (1, 0x74657374)
SELECT * FROM VarbinaryExample

Output

ID   BinaryData
-------------------
1    0x74657374

Explanation

The table VarbinaryExample is created with columns ID and BinaryData. The VARBINARY(MAX) datatype is used for the BinaryData column, which allows for the maximum storage size, up to 2^31-1 bytes. A value (1, 0x74657374) is then inserted into the table. The binary representation ‘0x74657374’ is hexadecimal for ‘test’. The SELECT statement retrieves all records from the table.

Oracle

Example

DECLARE
  raw_data VARBINARY(100);
BEGIN
  raw_data := UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_RAW('Hello World');
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_VARCHAR2(raw_data));
END;

Output

Hello World

Explanation

The VARBINARY data type in Oracle is used to store binary data as variable-length arrays. The code above declares a VARBINARY variable raw_data and assigns it the binary representation of the string ‘Hello World’. The UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_RAW function is used to convert ‘Hello World’ to its binary representation, and UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_VARCHAR2 is used to convert the binary data back into a string for display. The output of the code is the original string ‘Hello World’.