totn MariaDB Functions

MariaDB: BINARY Function

This MariaDB tutorial explains how to use the MariaDB BINARY function with syntax and examples.

Description

The MariaDB BINARY function converts a value to a binary string.

Syntax

The syntax for the BINARY function in MariaDB is:

BINARY value

Parameters or Arguments

value
The value to convert to a binary string.

Note

Applies To

The BINARY function can be used in the following versions of MariaDB:

  • MariaDB 10

Example

Let's look at some MariaDB BINARY function examples and explore how to use the BINARY function in MariaDB.

For example:

SELECT BINARY('TechOnTheNet.com'); 
Result: 'techonthenet.com'

SELECT BINARY('T'); 
Result: 'T'

Using the BINARY function to cast a value to a binary string is one way to force a byte-by-byte comparison of strings, rather than a character-by-character comparison. Let's investigate this further.

For example:

SELECT 'TECHONTHENET' = 'techonthenet';
Result: 1

If we ran the example above, MariaDB would perform a character-by-character comparison of 'TECHONTHENET' and 'techonthenet' and return 1 (because on a character-by-character basis, 'TECHONTHENET' and 'techonthenet' are equivalent).

However, if we modified the example by adding the BINARY function as follows, changing the comparison to byte-by-byte instead of character-by-character:

SELECT BINARY 'TECHONTHENET' = 'techonthenet';
Result: 0

MariaDB would perform a byte-by-byte comparison of 'TECHONTHENET' and 'techonthenet' and would return 0 (because on a byte-by-byte basis, 'TECHONTHENET' and 'techonthenet' are NOT equivalent.)

Share on: