How to store binary data in MySQL [duplicate]

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Binary Data in MySQL [closed] (9 answers)

Closed 6 years ago.

How do I store binary data in a MySQL database?

Answer 1

I would suggest LONGBLOB for storing files in MySQL. It all depends on what kind of binary and your application.

TINYBLOB - A BLOB column with a maximum length of 255 (2^8 - 1) characters.
BLOB - A BLOB column with a maximum length of 65,535 (2^16 - 1) characters.
MEDIUMBLOB - A BLOB column with a maximum length of 16,777,215 (2^24 - 1) characters.
LONGBLOB - A BLOB column with a maximum length of 4,294,967,295 (2^32 - 1) characters.

Answer 2

This question is not so straight forward to answer, as it sounds: There are lots of different binary data usage patterns out there, each with their own caveats and pros and cons. Let me try to summarize:

• Short pieces of binary data, such as password hashes, work very well by simply base64-encoding them and storing the resulting string as a VARCHAR
• "Not-quite-binary" data, such as document snipplets with the occasional non-printable can be escaped and sored as a string
• The BLOB datatype allows you to store arbitrary chunks of binary data, but I strongly recommend against using it: Store the data in a file, then store the path to the file in a String type. You gain nothing from storing binary data, that the DB doesn't "understand" in the DB.

Answer 3

Binary data can be stored in a MySQL database in a BLOB field. A BLOB is a binary large object that can hold a variable amount of data.