bintostr

Converts a sequence of hexadecimal digits to a string of its equivalent alphanumeric characters or varbinary data.

Syntax

select bintostr(sequence of hexadecimal digits)

sequence of hexadecimal digits – is the sequence of valid hexadecimal digits, consisting of [0 – 9], [a – f] and [A – F], and which is prefixed with “0x”.

Example 1 – Converts the hexadecimal sequence of “0x723ad82fe” to an alphanumeric string of the same value:
```
1> select bintostr(0x723ad82fe)
2> go
```
```
-----------------------------------
0723ad82fe
```
In this example, the in-memory representation of the sequence of hexadecimal digits and its equivalent alphanumeric character string are:

Hexadecimal digits (5 bytes)

0

7

2

3

a

d

8

2

f

e

Alphanumeric character string (9 bytes)

0

7

2

3

a

d

8

2

f

e

The function processes hexadecimal digits from right to left. In this example, the number of digits in the input is odd. For this reason, the alphanumeric character sequence has a prefix of “0” and is reflected in the output.
Example 2 – Converts the hexadecimal digits of a local variable called @bin_data to an alphanumeric string equivalent to the value of “723ad82fe”:
```
declare @bin_data varchar(30)
select @bin_data = 0x723ad82fe
select bintostr(@bin_data)
go
```
```
----------
0723ad82fe
```

ANSI SQL – Compliance level: Transact-SQL extension.

Any user can execute bintostr.

Hexadecimal digits (5 bytes)
0	7	2	3	a	d	8	2	f	e
Alphanumeric character string (9 bytes)
0		7		2		3		a		d	8	2	f	e