hextobin

Converts a hexadecimal stream to its binary representation.

hextobin(hexString[, 'stream|pretty'])

The hexadecimal varchar string hexString is converted to its binary representation, and the varbyte result returned. The optional second argument is a comma-separated string of any of the following flags:

• stream: Only accept the stream format of bintohex(), i.e. a stream of hexadecimal bytes, the same format that convert(varbyteData, 'varchar') would have returned in Texis version 6 and earlier. Whitespace is acceptable, but only between (not within) hexadecimal bytes. Case-insensitive. Non-conforming data will result in an error message and the function failing.

• pretty: Accept either stream or pretty format data; if the latter, only the hexadecimal bytes are parsed (e.g. ASCII column is ignored). Parsing is more liberal, but may be confused if the data deviates significantly from either format.

The hextobin() function was added in Texis version 7. Caveat: Note that in version 7 and later, convert()ing data from/to varbyte/varchar no longer converts the data to/from hexadecimal by default (as was done in earlier versions) in programs other than tsql; it is now preserved as-is (though truncated at nul for varchar). See the hexifybytes SQL property (here) to change this.