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to_binary

Description​

Converts a VARCHAR string to a binary value based on the specified binary format (binary_type) of the input string. The following binary formats are supported: hex, encode64, and utf8. If no binary_type is specified, hex is the default.

Syntax​

to_binary(str[, binary_type])

Parameters​

  • str: the string to convert, required. It must be a VARCHAR string.

  • binary_type: the binary format for conversion, optional.

    • hex(default): to_binary assumes the input string is a hex string in which all characters are in '0123456789abcdef'. If the input string is not valid, an empty binary is returned (exceptions will not be thrown). to_binary will convert the input string into binary directly. For example, "abab" will be converted to x'abab'. The input string is not case-sensitive.
    • encode64: to_binary assumes the input string is a base64-encoded string . If the input string is not valid, an empty binary is returned (exceptions will not be thrown). to_binary will decode the base64-encoded string as the binary result. For example, "YWJhYg==" will be converted to x'abab'.
    • utf8: to_binary converts the input string as a binary value without any transformation.

Return value​

Returns a VARCHAR value.

Examples​

The following examples assume that the --binary-as-hex option is enabled when you access StarRocks from your MySQL client. This way, binary data is displayed using hexadecimal notation.

mysql> select to_binary('ABAB', 'hex');
+----------------------------------------------------+
| to_binary('ABAB', 'hex')                           |
+----------------------------------------------------+
| 0xABAB                                             |
+----------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)

mysql> select to_binary('U1RBUlJPQ0tT', 'encode64');
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| to_binary('U1RBUlJPQ0tT', 'encode64')                                        |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 0x53544152524F434B53                                                         |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select to_binary('STARROCKS', 'utf8');
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| to_binary('STARROCKS', 'utf8')                                 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| 0x53544152524F434B53                                           |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

-- The input string does not match the binary format and an empty binary is returned.

mysql> select to_binary('U1RBUlJPQ0tT', 'hex');
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| to_binary('U1RBUlJPQ0tT', 'hex')                                   |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 0x                                                                 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

References​